Tough weekend ahead for Hurricanes

The Guelph Hurricanes (11-19-4 26 pts.) have a tough weekend ahead as they first travel to Waterloo to take on the 2nd Place (27-5-0 54 pts.) Siskins Friday night.

Siskins Wil Sibley has beaten Guelph 3 times

The Siskins have been winning with top notch goaltending and tough checking. They have a balanced  attack. In the previous 4 tilts, Waterloo has come out on top, 5-4, 5-3, 8-0 and 4-2. Three key factors that Guelph needs to do to win are:

1. Shoot !(early and often) The Canes have averaged 27.75 shots per game vs. Waterloo.  Waterloo’s goaltenders have a save % of .923. This translates into 2 goals against. So if they want to increase their goals, they need to increase the number of shots.

2. Stay out of the penalty box! Waterloo has converted 18.09% of their Powerplays (6th in GOJHL).

3. Get Solid goaltending! Attention Chris McDougall… pretend we are playing Stratford.

After battling with the Siskins, Guelph travels to the Bell City to take on the take on the 1st Place Brantford Golden Eagles (28-4-3 59 pts.) on Saturday night.

McQuade leads the GOJHL scoring with 103 pts.

 Two Brantford players that have killed the Canes this season are goaltender Daryl Borden (26-4 2.51 GAA) and Josh McQuade, who leads the league in scoring with 103 pts. (40 goals and 63 assists)

The Golden Eagles sport the GOJHL’s leading Penalty Kill with 89.95% , including 20 shorthanded goals.

Two keys to victory in this game are:

1. Hit them, hit them and then hit them again. This is a run-and-gun finese team that the Hurricanes can upset if they keep laying the body on them.

2. Neutralize Josh McQuade. McQuade has scored 7 goals and 2 assists in 3 games vs. Guelph, including 2 hat tricks. How do they do that….read point #1. Oh and when they hit them, do it cleanly, because Brantford also has the #4 PowerPlay in the GOJHL converting on 23.66% of  them.

One more key factor in both these games.

If Guelph remains in 7th or 8th in the standings at the end of the regular season, it is likely that they will either face Brantford or Waterloo in the first round of the playoffs.

Hurricanes get younger and bigger as they build for the Future

from http://www.guelphhurricanes.com

CANES & CYCLONES MAKE TRADE

Hurricanes General Manager Matt Mullin has pulled off a trade with the Listowel Cyclones that appears to help both teams.

Ken Rolph and Dan Mohle traded to Listowel

Offensive threats Dan Mohle and Ken Rolph will be travelling to Listowel to complete their junior careers with the tough Cyclones.

With the addition of the two 20 year olds the Cyclones are now in the hunt for the Sutherland Cup.

Coming to the Huricanes are two 1992’s Blair Goss from Fergus and Jake Weidner from Grand Valley. Weidner also plays lacrosse for the Elora Mohawks. Included in the deal for Guelph are future considerations.

Mullin thanked Mohle and Rolph for their service with Guelph junior B’s and wished them continued success in Listowel.

The irony of this deal is that the Canes and Cyclones play a home and home series this weekend starting Friday night in Listowel.

The Cyclones with Mohle and Rolph in the lineup visit the Sleeman Center on Saturday. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

Dutchmen spoil Hurricanes party at Guaranteed Win Night

Chris MacDougall braces for the shot

According to the script, the Guelph Hurricanes were to earn their 8th victory of the season with a win over Kitchener. But unfortunately, someone forgot to inform the Dutchmen who defeated the Canes 5-3.

Kitchener jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first 4 minutes of the game.

They stretched that lead to 3-0 by the end of the first period.

The Hurricanes got one back in the second making it 3-1.

Each team exchanged a pair of goals in the 3rd, making it a 5-3 final.

SCORING SUMMARY

Period 1

Kitchener – Josh Mitton (Shane Bainbridge, Mark Scheifele) 3:18 Kitchener – Tanner DeWitt (powerplay) (Mark Scheifele, Shawn Bechtloff) 3:39 Kitchener – Lucas Tucciapone (Josh Mitton, Paul Sergi) 18:56

Period 2

Guelph – Ken Rolph (shorthanded) (Evan Jared, Cayle Creen) 13:36

Period 3

Kitchener – Josh Warner (Brandon Passley, Ryan Clarkson) 0:32 Guelph – Mike McFarlane (Wade Pfeffer, Nic MacEachern) 0:54 Kitchener – Ryan Clarkson (Brandon Passley, Josh Mitton) 5:23 Guelph – Mark Bell (powerplay) (Andrew Van Ooteghem, Connor Ste Marie) 18:24

Not only did the game feature several fights including a tilt where the Hurricanes Nic MacEachern (5-10 178lbs.) took on the Dutchmen’s Alex McCaffrey (6-3 246 lbs.) and held his own.

Trainers from both teams attend to Brant Nicolson

But the game also featured a scary scene where Dutchmen’s defenceman Brant Nicolson bolted out of the penalty box after a loose puck in the Hurricanes end lost an edge and fell ackwardly head first into the boards.

The trainers from both teams were quickly on the scene (which reminded me of the Rangers Ben Fanelli injury a couple of weeks ago).

Based on the fact that he hit his head the trainers and EMS staff were cautious and treated Brant as if he had a spinal injury.

The game was delayed 20 minutes as he was taken to hospital for further tests.

Although the game didn’t turn out as the script maker would have liked it to be, The Hurricanes made good on their promise by giving free tickets to an upcoming game to fans that purchased their tickets at the game.

The next Hurricanes game is Friday Nov. 20th when Guelph travels to Waterloo to take on the Siskins.

Then the following night, Saturday Nov. 21st the Hurricanes host the Stratford Cullitons. Game time is 7:30 pm at the Sleeman Centre.

Shorthanded Hurricanes have no answer for Cody Hall & the Winterhawks Powerplay

 from http://www.GuelphHurricanes.com

In the space of 7 minutes during the second period WinterHawk fans were treated to the Cody Hall powerplay show. The game was tied 1-1 when Hall went to work and 4-1 when he was finished. Excellent saves by Chris McDougall and a couple of goal posts prevented the veteran Hall from scoring 5 or 6 goals.

Hall’s performance and the absence of Dan Mohle from Guelph’s powerplay overshadowed a good road performance from the Canes. The Canes still smarting from injuries to defensemen Wade Pfeffer and Luca Penzo went with both their 16 year old defensemen Brandon Anselmini and Daniel Cotroneo. Both players played tough and had relatively good games in a tough building. Anselmini contributed his 1st junior goal on a hard shot from the point.

The Canes had 3 call ups for the game including 16 year old midget Evan Jared. To make matters worse was the loss of D-Man Peter Soligo due to a head check penalty.

Also scoring for Guelph was Tyson Theaker. Adding assists were Mike McFarland, Zack Dion and Nic MacEachern. Canes travel to Stratford this Friday.

The next Hurricanes home game is Saturday November 14th, 7:30pm at the Sleeman Centre. When Guelph takes on the Kitchener Dutchmen.