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Last Updated: Jul 2nd, 2008 - 20:21:03
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It took them 11 seasons but the Lethbridge Hurricanes finally gave me my day.
Since taking over the Western Hockey League beat in 1997, the season after the Hurricanes won the WHL title and went to the Memorial Cup, the ’Canes had not won a playoff series. In fact they’d won just four playoff games total over the course of 10 seasons, missing the playoffs four times.
So Wednesday rolled around and it found me on the golf course in the morning and covering a playoff game that night, they’d finally given me my perfect day. Of course a win to extend the WHL championship series against the Spokane Chiefs would have been better but how can you quibble about what transpired over the course of the last six weeks?
We’ve waxed poetic already about what the Hurricanes accomplished this season, for goodness sake my musings have filled three special editions. So there’s not a lot more that needs to be said about the year. It was a superb season capped by a reaffirming playoff run and for that, Hurricane fans throughout southern Alberta can be thankful. That it looks as though a program has now been established where such playoff successes won’t come in 11-year intervals, is all the more satisfying.
So what did you take away from the playoffs? Here are my top 10 moments from the Lethbridge Hurricanes’ 2007-08 playoffs.
10. The towel-waving fanaticism that opened Game 1 of the playoffs against Brandon Wheat Kings. It was a loud, proud display from a fan base that seemed to know this playoff would be different.
9. Hurricane goaltender Juha Metsola’s head-bobbing, pad-shuffling pre-game dance moves in the crease.
8. The WHL Finals press conference in Spokane in advance of Game 1. With 15-plus media and every WHL bigwig on hand, it really dawned that the ’Canes were in the big show.
7. Kootenay head coach Mark Holick’s post-game diatribe after Lethbridge dominated the Ice 51-13 on the shot clock and won 5-2 to take a 2-1 series lead. “If it wasn’t for Kris (Lazaruk), I’m scared to think how many records would have been set today,” was the highlight quote.
6. Hurricane defenceman Luca Sbisa’s hit on Brandon’s Scott Glennie in the second period of their clinching Game 6 win at the Enmax Centre. As good an open-ice hit as you’ll ever see and then Sbisa backed it up by fighting Brayden Schenn.
5. Spending five full days in Brandon. Wait, that’s in the lowlights column.
5 (for real this time). A Lethbridge fan complaining between the second and third periods of the ’Canes’ series-clinching win over Calgary. Despite Lethbridge holding a 3-1 lead and about to sweep the top seed to win the Eastern Conference title, she just had to say they were lucky to be leading and only Metsola was the difference.
It’s nice to know some people will never be happy.
4. Juha Metsola’s save on Calgary’s Kyle Bortis with 24 seconds to play in Game 4, a miraculous point-blank stop that preserved a 3-2 lead and further solidified his selection as Eastern Conference Finals MVP.
3. Rookie Austin Fyten’s overtime goal against Calgary in Game 2 of the East final. It gave Lethbridge a 2-0 series lead in Calgary and drove the point home that this team was for real. That it came from a 16-year-old and was a goal-scorer’s beauty only made it sweeter.
2. Dwight King’s overtime goal in Game 2 against the Kootenay Ice. This goal saved the season for the Hurricanes and they would go on to win eight consecutive playoff games as a result. Down 1-0 in the series and having blown a 4-0 third-period lead and given up the tying goal with 15 seconds to play, the ’Canes’ season was on the line when King scored off the rush 2:41 into the extra session.
1. Hurricane captain Ben Wright accepting the Eastern Conference championship trophy following the four-game sweep of Calgary. Given what Wright has endured the past three seasons, it was sweet justice the embattled captain could enjoy this moment.
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