WHL: Alberta Teams Round-Up

January 20, 2012
Posted in Alberta Edition, Major Junior

By Scott Fisher /

CALGARY HITMEN

It’s been quite awhile since the Calgary Hitmen have felt this good.

The Hitmen beat the Edmonton Oil Kings 4-3 in mid-January to record their seventh straight victory.

That marked the club’s longest string of success since ending the 2009/10 campaign on a nine-game run.

“I got traded (to Calgary) and caught the tail end of that,” Bubnick told the Calgary Sun of the 2010 WHL championship season.

“As far as last year, there was no feeling like this in the room. Far from it.

“It’s going well now, but we don’t want to take anything for granted.”

The winning streak began Dec. 30 on the second tilt of a five-game road trip and moved the team comfortably into seventh spot in the Eastern Conference standings.

Goaltender Brandon Glover picked up his fifth straight win as the Hitmen beat the Oil Kings for the first time in four attempts.

LETHBRIDGE HURRICANES

The rebuild continues.

After a horrible start left the Hurricanes with little to play for this season, the team continued its rebuilding process with a major trade-deadline deal.

The ’Canes shipped captain Cam Braes to the Moose Jaw Warriors for a 2012 first-round draft choice and a second-rounder in 2013.

Braes, who played in 320 games in Hurricanes colours, didn’t demand a trade but let management know that he wouldn’t object to finishing off his WHL career with a playoff appearance.

“You don’t want to give up a guy like that, ever,” GM/head coach Rich Preston told the Lethbridge Herald.

“But there’s a lot of factors that go into a decision like this and what’s best for Cam, what Cam wants, has to be part of the process.”

With two picks in the first round of the 2012 Bantam Draft, the Hurricanes should be able to re-stock the cupboards quickly.

The ’Canes took defenceman Ryan Pilon and centre Reid Duke, third and fifth overall at last spring’s WHL Bantam Draft.

MEDICINE HAT TIGERS

The Tigers are one of half-dozen teams battling for home-ice advantage in the playoffs.

But they’ll need to get back on track if they’re to play the majority of their post-season tilts at the Medicine Hat Arena.

The Bengals are just 5-4 since returning from the Christmas break.

Medicine Hat added forward Brendan Hurley, 18, at the trade deadline from the Kootenay Ice to help them in their late-season run.

Hurley spent his first day with his new club looking at the rich history in Medicine Hat’s old barn — banners, trophies, pictures.

He came away impressed.

“I just think that it is a great organization to come to,” Hurley told the Medicine Hat News. “I’ve been looking up at the banners and stuff, and it is a winning organization.

“It was a great honour, when I got the call to say that I was coming to Medicine Hat.”

Hurely scored in his final game with the Ice — against the Tigers.

Emerson Etem certainly isn’t suffereing from a post-world junior hangover.

The Team USA sniper scored in five straight games after returning to the team to run his goals-streak to seven games.

RED DEER REBELS

If anyone can figure out the Red Deer Rebels, please call the club’s head office.

Head coach Jesse Wallin is running out of theories.

And patience.

One night after recording a massive 5-4 win over the eighth-place Wheat Kings in Brandon, the Rebels laid an egg — a goose egg — in a 4-0 loss to the 10th-place Swift Current Broncos.

“We certainly weren’t the same team that we were the night before,” Wallin told the Red Deer Advocate. “We didn’t have the same jump, we didn’t have the same intensity.

“We didn’t have enough good players last night.”

The Rebels, sitting in ninth place in mid-January — and four points back of the Wheaties for the final playoff spot — need every point they can get their hands on.

Dropping games to the WHL’s weaker clubs will not help.

“It really is frustrating, especially when it was something that we had discussed,” Wallin said.

“You look at the teams who are behind us. Our record against those teams (Swift Current, Lethbridge and Prince Albert) this season isn’t very good.”

The Rebels have won just four of 10 games since snapping a franchise-record 13-game losing streak.

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