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It’s a testament to the growth of the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns women’s hockey team that head coach Chandy Kaip was upset after taking three of four points from the Alberta Pandas.
The weekend wrapped with a 2-1 shootout loss to the Pandas Saturday at Nicholas Sheran Arena, a game which was the mirror image of the night before.
“Am I allowed to be upset that we only took three of four points this weekend?” laughed Kaip after the game. “I’m definitely disappointed to have lost the lead and not gotten the two points tonight.”
On Friday, the Pandas were up 2-0 in the third when Lethbridge rallied, then won the game in a shootout.
On Saturday, Lethbridge scored early, and held on to the 1-0 lead until Alison Campbell tied it with less than five minutes to go in the game.
Lethbridge staked the lead thanks to captain Ashley Beattie’s first period power play goal and they held on despite a much more offensive game plan from the powerhouse Pandas.
“You know, Howie (Draper, Pandas head coach) is one of the great coaches this league has seen, he’s a class act all the way and after the game he shook my hand and said how far our team has come, he just said congratulations and how far we’ve comeand that’s incredible to get a compliment like that.
“It’s true, this program has come a long way to where we’ve won three out of four games against the U of A, one of the country’s strongest programs year in and year out, and yes, I’m disappointed in that.”
Kaip’s wins over the Pandas are the program’s first but with Manitoba just one point behind them for the final Canada West Conference playoff spot, she’s taking nothing for granted.
“Next weekend against the U of M, that’s going to be huge,” she understated. “It’s the biggest two games we’ve ever faced since I got here.”
The Pronghorns are 11-7-2, and their 24 points are one up on the 10-5-3 Bisons. Lethbridge has a bye the final weekend of the Canada West season and hosts Regina on the penultimate weekend.
Crystal Patterson stopped 22 shots in the Pronghorn net, while Kaitlyn Chapman faced 15 shots. In the shootout, Kaip sent out Shelby Ballendine, who missed her chance for the second straight night, while Sadie Lenstra, who scored the shootout winner Friday, also was stopped.
The Pronghorn men were in Edmonton, where they lost 6-1 to fall to 5-14-3.

It had all the makings of a very long night at the rink for the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s hockey team.
Turns out, it was a long night for the Pronghorns, but the good kind as the team erased a 2-0 deficit at the hands of the Calgary Dinos with a pair of third-period goals and then completed the comeback as Tyler Hlookoff scored in double overtime for a 3-2 win during Canada West action Friday night at Nicholas Sheran Arena.
But with the Dinos jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the opening 5:44 of the game and outshooting the Pronghorns 15-4 in the first period, it was indeed looking like a long night at the proverbial office for the Pronghorns as well as the 744 in attendance.
“I’m really happy with the second and third periods and obviously overtime,” said Pronghorns head coach Greg Gatto. “In the first period, in the first minute and a half I was ready to get off the bench. I was just tired of watching. But I didn’t say anything. Last week I snapped and blew a gasket, but they knew they were bad. I said ‘You know what, you got the bad period out of the way. If we get better we’re going to be OK.’ I think we were watching them work and we weren’t working with them. We just got better and better. We won more faceoffs. We got the some big goals.”
The Dinos hit the score sheet 2:36 in when Dylan Hood cashed in on a rebound just to the right of Scott Bowles for a quick 1-0 lead.
The Dinos went on the power play and upped their lead to 2-0 former Hurricane Max Ross got his stick on a point shot from Hood at the 5:44 mark.
In the final minute of the second, Clayton Cumiskey was hauled down on a breakaway with 51.4 seconds remaining and a penalty shot was called.
With Cumiskey injured on the play after sliding into the boards behind the Dinos net, Lethbridge captain Dustin Moore took the penalty shot, but shot high on the chance, keeping the Dino’s 2-0 lead intact after 40 minutes of play with the Pronghorns out-shooting the Dinos 20-13 in the second period.
The ’Horns were handed another power play early in the third and finally found a way past Dinos netminder Jacob DeSerres when Dan Iwanski’s shot from the top of the circle squeaked through to cut the Calgary lead in half at 2-1 2:56 into the third.
“I thought DeSerres played really well,” said Gatto. “He was kind of in our grill in the first two periods. In the first period we had four shots, but in the second we were thinking ‘Geez, maybe we don’t have a chance with this guy.’ He’s a big kid, he smothered everything.”
The Pronghorns kept up the pressure and nearly tied it, but Taylor Gal was unable to convert on an in-close rebound.
Gal had another chance on the doorstep with 11:58 remaining, but was again unable to tuck the puck past a sprawled out DeSerres.
Then chances kept coming for the Pronghorns as Gal sent Moore in alone, but DeSerres was once again equal to the task, turning the Lethbridge captain away.
But with time winding down and Lethbridge shorthanded, Gal wasn’t denied on his next chance, taking a drop pass from Cumiskey and cutting in on DeSerres and roofing a shot high to tie the game at 2-2 with 1:33 to go.
“I knew we were down a goal and it was getting late,” said Gal. “We were on the penalty kill and usually when you’re on the penalty kill you stay back and get defensive. I knew I had to get up there with the offensive. It was a hell of a play by Cumiskey, a little drop fast. I just made a move on the goalie and I put it in.
When the four-on-four first overtime solved nothing the Pronghorns bagged the winner with a little crease crashing that Hlookoff finished with his first of the year to seal the two points for the ‘Horns.
“Go to the net,” said Gatto. “I thought Winston (Day Chief) was great. We put Winston back on defence. He makes a great play, passes it out front and Tyler Hlookoff gets his first laying on his butt, which is a huge goal.”
The win puts Lethbridge at 6-11-3, two games ahead of the Regina Cougars.
In the women’s game between the ’Horns and Dinos in Calgary, Lethbridge fell 8-2 and was out-shot 48-12. Hayley Wickenheiser had three goals and an assist. Shelby Ballendine and Courtney Minor staked a 2-0 lead for Lethbridge early in the game. Shauntelle Parsons stopped 40 shots in the loss.

An era is over.
With the trade of Cam Braes to the Moose Jaw Warriors for a pair of bantam draft picks, the last connection to an Eastern Conference championship team is broken.
Even within the front office, there are few people left who were with the team during the 2007-08 playoff run which saw the Hurricanes beat Brandon, Kootenay and Calgary in the playoffs before falling to the eventual Memorial Cup-champion Spokane Chiefs in the WHL Final.
But after Austin Fyten was ruled out of this season because of a knee injury, Braes was the only player in the room who could remember when fans dotted their windows with “Go Hurricanes!” signs and drove around with flags flying out of their car windows. He can remember the “Juha” chants and the raucous and rocking atmosphere of the Enmax Centre.
Given the mausoleum the Hurricanes have played in this season, when players could find more atmosphere in a Starbucks, it was a fond memory for the captain as he said goodbye at a news conference Monday.
“The guys in there now all say ‘the Enmax Centre’s too quiet’ but I keep telling them about that year and how it was,” said Braes, who played 320 games in a Hurricanes jersey. “I mean, you had all those signs all over town, the whole place was just amazing.”
“I’d love to experience that again, maybe if we can make something happen in Moose Jaw. But it was definitely a memory you don’t forget, just energizing a whole city.”
Braes was just 16 years old for that run and he said he would have loved to have been older for the experience.
“I was just a spectator for the Zach Boychuk-Mitch Fadden show that year,” he laughed. “I’d have loved to be a bigger part of that but it shows you can’t take that stuff for granted because you don’t know if it’ll ever happen again.”
The following season, the Hurricanes upset Braden Holtby and the Saskatoon Blades in the first round before bowing out to the Hitmen. Since then, the results have been dismal for the organization on and off the ice. But through all that, Braes has been the epitome of a good soldier. Through the past two non-playoff seasons, the forward from Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island has showed up every game and, as head coach and general manager Rich Preston said “came to win.”
He was rewarded this season with the captain’s C on his jersey but a dreadful 13-game winless streak put the team in a tough spot. Unlikely to make the playoffs and with his professional career on the line, Braes told Preston that if the offer was there, he should take it.
“Definitely the toughest decision I’ve had to make,” said Braes. “I love it here, the city’s been great to me, the fans have always supported me and my teammates are awesome.
“But I talked to my agent and I want to play pro hockey, that’s why I’m here in the first place and to do that, he felt like I’d need to be in the playoffs.”
While Preston explained the team’s rationale for the deal Monday, Braes tried to hold back tears. Red-faced and teary-eyed, he went through his gamut of interviews with the same humour and class he showed for nearly five seasons.
Preston drew the comparison between Braes and former captain Carter Bancks, who plays in the Calgary Flames system. Where Bancks elected to stay in Lethbridge, Preston said Braes had to do what was best for him.
“We didn’t trade Carter because he didn’t want to go but this was a different situation,” said Preston. “I told every team that called, ‘Make me an offer’ because I wasn’t going to set a price on a kid like that. You get a player like Cam Braes, you don’t ever want to trade him. Not ever.”
Braes has spent his time off the ice living with Garry and Cheryl Gudmundson. After four years, he said it would be like moving out of his home.
“They have been great, a second family,” said Braes. “Seriously, they’re my second family. I mean, four years, you’re going to have a lot of trouble leaving that. I don’t know what I’m going to do in Moose Jaw, but I won’t find the kind of people I stayed with here.”
Cheryl Gudmundson admitted she was in the middle of a crappy day because of the trade. For her, it was just like having another child move out.
“It sucks, it’s not fair,” she said. “I know it’s part of the game, we’ve been through it before when kids get moved to another billet home or they graduate, but it doesn’t make it any easier.
“They come into your home and they’re part of your family.”
She said Braes was shy at first, despite an outgoing on-ice and interview-room demeanour. He was careful around the house before finally warming up and becoming just another one of her kids. Gudmundson said she will even miss Braes teaching her daughter Kristi, how to play Call of Duty video games or fighting a turf war over the basement.
“Oh definitely, it was more about who was messier, neither of them keeps it clean down there,” she said. “And it would also be ‘This isn’t a man-cave’ and they’d fight over who left the bathroom dirty. That’s how it is, they’d fight and, really, it’s just how it is.
“They’re family.”
Braes stayed with Bancks at the house before the latter graduated and Gudmundson said before that she’s had others including Kyle Pess. But Braes won’t be replaced right away. With 15- and 16-year-old daughters at home, introducing a new young hockey player isn’t in the plans. Plus, it’ll be hard to measure up.
“If you’re going to go out, definitely, Cam is a special kind of guy to go out on.”

In his dual role as Lethbridge Hurricanes head coach and general manager, Rich Preston is sometimes pulled in two different directions.
Preston clearly enjoys the time on the ice and on the bench as the coach, running drills, matching lines and trying to win. He is, like so many professional players, at home in skates and on the ice, as he is at every practice.
But there is that nagging desire to follow the organization’s top young prospects, and the ’Canes are flush with them. The team has 11 listed players (nine drafted) at the Mac’s midget hockey tournament. Across town at the new Hockey Canada digs in Canada Olympic Park, is the World Sports School Challenge. That event includes Slovakia, Finland and Czech Republic’s U17 teams, hockey schools from Shattuck-St. Mary’s, Calgary’s Edge School, Okanagan hockey Academy and the Pursuit of Excellence school in Kelowna.
The presence of the two events — not to mention the World Junior tournament — in Calgary has kept Hurricanes’ assistant GM Brad Robson and the team’s scouts busy. And Preston said he’d love to join them.
“It’d be great. Just to see some of the players and how they’ve improved from training camp,” he said. “But you look at our schedule here and there’d be a lot of driving there, going back and forth.”
With three games in four nights the Hurricanes will be busy, and Preston said he’d like to see a longer break for WHL teams so he could catch some of the hockey.
“That’s good hockey, it’s the top midget players there at the Mac’s and then at the new Hockey Canada rink (the Winsport Centre at COP) you’ve got the hockey school tournament.”
It means Preston will be running around with the WHL team, while Robson races back and forth across Calgary, trying to evaluate and catch some undrafted gems at the two tournaments.
“Brad’s running around like a one-armed paper hanger,” laughed Preston. “He filled up his gas tank Monday, had to fill it again today and he hasn’t left Calgary.”
The good news for the Hurricanes’ long-term agenda is that 11 players at the Mac’s is tied with Medicine Hat and Spokane as the largest contingent on any WHL team’s list. With roster players Craig Leverton, Jay Merkley and Macoy Erkamps at the World U17 Hockey Challenge as well as listed player Remi Laurencelle, the team is shipping talent at the younger age groups. Leverton and Laurencelle are playing for Team West.
“It’s got to be tough for Leverton, he was hurt for us for so long, and then just as he comes back, he’s got to go play this tournament,” said Preston. “It’s going to get him right back into it, not a lot of time to get comfortable. Laurencelle, Remi, he’s going to be a good player for us coming up. They’re both really skilled guys, they’re going to be impact guys for us.”
Merkley and Erkamps will be playing for former Lethbridge Hurricanes coach Michael Dyck on Team Pacific. Preston said the experience of playing in tournaments —  being exposed to the level of play, adjusting to different coaching and having to assume different roles — is a big benefit to the player.
“It’s a great chance to step up for some of them,” said Preston. “You get a chance to compete with the best players your age and see how you measure up. It’s too bad we don’t get a chance to watch them, though. I’d like to see some of those U17 games.”
Preston said after a short Wednesday practice heading into tonight’s 7 p.m. game against the Medicine Hat Tigers, he’ll be too busy to spend much time watching boxscores of prospects. The 14-23-0-1 Hurricanes host the Tigers tonight and are in the Hat Friday. Then they play a game every other day until Jan. 9.
“With three games in four, you have to be careful, you don’t want to tire them out because there isn’t really a chance to catch up after that,” he said. “We’ll have to be sharper than we were (in Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Kootenay Ice in Cranbrook) but they’re ready, they know what has to be done from here on.”
NOTES — The Mac’s tournament also features the Medicine Hat Players Bench Tigers, a team which plays out of Vauxhall but is made up of mostly players from Lethbridge and area. They have two ties in their two games and are in third place in their pool.

There is no making sense of what happened Thursday morning, when three people were murdered and another committed suicide. There is no rational thought that can lead to such things.
There is just grief and the gamut of emotions which are pulled along beside it. Thankfully, I can only imagine what the families of Tanner Craswell, Tabitha Stepple, Mitch MacLean and Derek Jensen are going through. I haven’t buried any of my children. I hope I never do.
There is no neat storyline in this drama, no catharsis in the final act which can bring things to a conclusion. That’s how stage plays work, not how the real world works.
You can find a villain in this piece, but only if you surrender to a narrow line of thinking. Every young person killed north of Claresholm that day has loved ones. Each one deserves to be remembered as more than just what they were that day.
There will be  a hole in the middle infield of Henderson Stadium that cannot be filled by recruitment. Randy Stepple and his family will always be one short at the dinner table. There is nowhere the Jensens can go that will make them forget their son.
It is a disservice to boil down the lives of Craswell and MacLean into “rising young stars on a baseball team.” It is wrong to settle the memory of Tabitha Stepple into “the ex-girlfriend.”
And Jensen was a son and a friend long before he ever killed anyone.
They were people, and that defies pithy descriptions and one-line summations.
Four unique people died last Thursday in Claresholm. It is not a story about jilted love, or young lives taken too soon. It doesn’t have a moral. It isn’t a comedy or a tragedy or a lesson or a cautionary tale.
There are no winners here, no losers either. Just four families who will have to bury their children and live with the loss.
Merry Christmas.
•••
There were moments in the wake of this shooting which remind you of the good in the world.
An acquaintance of mine was in a Sears store when she heard that two young men she knew quite well, Tanner Craswell and Mitch MacLean, were killed outside of Claresholm early Thursday.
She broke down, blubbering with grief.
A woman behind the makeup counter brought her over, sat her down so she could, at the very least, grieve out of the public eye.
What a nice thing to do. I’d like to thank that saleswoman for helping my friend.
Thank you.
Also, several members of the baseball community have made sure to express their sympathy to the family and friends of Stepple and Jensen. The burden these families — all these families — are dealing with is unimaginable and they all need support through this.
MacLean and Craswell, as members of the Bulls, have the higher profile but there were four people who died that day and while anger is an easy way out, I’m glad to see it’s the road not taken.
It is a time of year when compassion hopefully runs as rampant as consumerism, and if you have an opportunity to help, please do so.

There was a warm and cuddly vibe Saturday night at the Enmax Centre, and it was only partially due to the 2,928 teddy bears that hailed down upon the Lethbridge Hurricanes first goal in honour of the annual Teddy Bear Toss.
Rather, the warmest and fuzziest story came courtesy of Hurricanes defenceman Albin Blomqvist’s first career WHL goal as the Hurricanes topped the Swift Current Broncos 4-1 during Western Hockey League action Saturday night.
Stepping out of the penalty box, Blomqvist took a feed from Brody Sutter, broke in alone and slipped a shot past Broncos goaltender Jon Groenheyde that handed the Hurricanes a 4-1 lead 1:36 into the third.
With the win, the Hurricanes improve to 14-22-0-1, having gone 8-2 in their past 10 games.
After the Hurricanes 6-5 overtime win over the Victoria Royals Friday night, Hurricanes head coach Rich Preston predicted the Swedish defenceman would snipe the goal that would send the teddy bears flying and while that wasn’t the case — that honour went to Graham Hood — the Lethbridge coach and general manager was simply happy to see his defenceman remove the goalscoring monkey off his back.
“It was a nice feeling,” said Blomqvist. “To get that goal, it took half a season, but it was good to get the win, too. It’s good.”
After a scoreless first period, Hood broke the goose egg and sent a volley of teddy bears flying, scoring 45 seconds into the second period on the power play for a 1-0 lead.
The ’Canes found themselves down a man when defenceman Macoy Erkamps was whistled down for hooking, but went up 2-0 as Cam Braes corralled a turnover at the Lethbridge blueline and wired a wrist shot past Groenheyde for a 2-0 lead 1:31 into the second.
The Hurricanes went up 3-0 with 5:30 left in the second when Russell Maxwell cashed in on a goal mouth rebound before Coda Gordan made it 3-1 with 3:14 to go in the second.
Lethbridge restored its three-goal lead with Blomqvist’s first WHL tally. Upon his return to the bench Preston had a few quick words for his defenceman.
“He just told me ‘How did that feel?’” said Blomqvist. “I was happy. I told him before that I was going to score tonight. I’m happy I got one.”
Preston’s post-game grin was as big as the one he had on the bench after Blomqvist’s goal.
“That was a big goal, right out of the penalty box, breakaway,” said a chuckling coach.
“He’ll remember that one for a long time. We have to send the video back to his parents. We’ll put it on Youtube, that’ll be big over in Sweden.
“The whole team, I think everybody had a bet on when or if he would score this year, so that was pretty good.”
After blowing two-goal leads heading in the third period in their prior two games, there was no choking Saturday.
“It was a lot better,” said Preston. “We took a two-goal lead into the third period and we didn’t blow it this time. We played a lot better in the third.”
Blomqvist not only struck for his first WHL goal, his outing earned him the Hardest Working Hurricane and third star award.
“It felt good,” said Blomqvist. “I’ve been sick for a while and feeling pretty tired. But I thinking before the game and I told myself I was going to go out there and lay some big hits for the boys. That’s what I did and we won. That’s what matters.”
Damien Ketlo made 35 saves to put his record on the season above .500 (10-9-0). He started the year 0-6 but since returning from injury in November, has been part of the reason for the Hurricanes’ four-game win streak. Phil Tot and Brody Sutter each had two assists, giving Tot four points in the past two games.
Lethbridge is off on the WHL’s Christmas break, and doesn’t play again until Dec. 27 in Cranbrook against the Kootenay Ice. The next home game is Dec. 29 against the Medicine Hat Tigers.
The Enmax Centre won’t be empty until then, as the building hosts the Czech Republic-Russia World Junior exhibition game on Dec. 22.
NOTES — Eleven players from the Lethbridge Hurricanes’ protected list will be featured at the annual Mac’s Midget Tournament. Including first-round picks Ryan Pilon and Reid Duke, Tyler Wong, Lenny Hackman, Branden Scheidl, Kolten Olynek, Chris Thorimbert, Carter Amson, Joel Topping, Bryton Sayers, Christopher Tai will all be participating.

Isn’t that Matteo Pasquotti a good kid?
Pasquotti took part in a strictly media-geared event held by the 2012 Alberta Summer Games organizing committee Friday at the Atco Gas offices in Lethbridge.
The Games committee was kicking off its fundraising campaign and doing its best to get recognition for sponsor Atco Gas.
Atco donated a whack of cash — $50,000 — and the organizers needed some way to say thanks, so they arranged for Pasquotti to brave the cold wind and ceremonially light the torch at the cauldron outside the Atco building.
Of course, it was strictly for show since both torch and cauldron were already lit when Pasquotti climbed the steps and smiled for the cameras. The Games will take place July 26-29 in Lethbridge.
But the cash is very real, and it will go a long way toward helping the Games be a success.
“We have been working hard, trying to get sponsors for awhile now but today, with this great support from Atco, we’re really excited to get going,” said Games chairman George Virtue. “We need $1.6 million to run the Games, and that includes gifts in kind but we do need cash and for a high-five sponsor like Atco to step up is going to allow us to bring on more sponsors.”
The high-five theme is part of the Games’ logo and while Virtue said he’d love to see more businesses step to the plate with $50,000 donations, he said whatever a business can offer, whether cash or service in kind, he plans to recognize them.
“Well, obviously, today we wanted to get an elite athlete out here, someone who represents the kind of athlete who will be competing and Matteo was great, wasn’t he? We wanted to say thanks at the same time we let others know we’re open for business.”
And Pasquotti, who has never participated in an Alberta Summer Games, was all smiles despite the chilly wind. The local soccer star spent part of last year in Vancouver as part of the Major League Soccer Whitecaps’ youth academy. He’s currently rehabbing a leg injury and hopes to be playing for his dad Dino’s Catholic Central Cougars basketball team before the end of the 2012 campaign.
Virtue said businesses or community organizations can contact the Summer Games office at 403-320-7766 or check out the website at www.2012albertasummergames.ca

Chalk up another pair of points for the cardiac ’Canes.
Hosting the Victoria Royals in Western Hockey League action Friday at the Enmax Centre, the Lethbridge Hurricanes coughed up a two-goal lead after the second period and fell behind before notching the equalizer and ultimately the winner in overtime when Brady Ramsay potted his 13th goal of the season for a 5-4 victory.
Leading 3-1 after 40 minutes, the Hurricanes were lit up 18-4 on the shot clock in the third period as the Royals scored three unanswered goals to briefly take a 4-3 lead before Lethbridge defenceman Daniel Johnston tallied his first of the season to force the overtime session and set the table for Ramsay’s overtime winner.
“We can’t be coming out like that in the third,” said Hurricanes forward Brody Sutter, who had a goal and an assist. “We’re making it hard on ourselves. We need to play the same way the whole 60 minutes, whether we’re up two or down two.
“We can keep pulling out these wins, but I don’t know how long it’s going to last.”
The Hurricanes were first on the board 2:01 into the game when Sutter tallied his 15th goal of the season. They upped that lead to 2-0 with 34.3 seconds to go in the first when Philip Tot sifted a sharp-angle shot off a feed from Graham Hood past Royals netminder Keith Hamilton.
The Hurricanes went up 3-0 7:03 into the second and Graham Hood scored his third goal in two games, swatting home a rebound from a Sutter shot past Royals netminder Jared Rathjen.
The Royals used the man advantage to get on the board when Jesse Pauls sent a shot through traffic that found its way past ’Canes netminder Damien Ketlo to make it 3-1 8:43 into the second period, then cut the lead to one 55 seconds into the third when Ben Walker was the beneficiary of a generous rebound.
The Royals pulled even a little over four minutes later when Robin Sudek finished off a fine passing play from Pauls to make it 3-3 at 4:40, then took their first lead when Jamie Crooks danced in off the right wing and wired a wrist shot past Ketlo for a 4-3 lead. Hurricanes drew even when Johnston notched his first goal of the season a little under two minutes later.
“That was a huge goal by Johnston,” said Hurricanes head coach Rich Preston. “That was probably the biggest goal of the game because we responded after they scored and went up. He gets the goal to tie it up.”
The Hurricanes nearly regained the lead with 6:38 to go, but Jamien Yakubowski’s shot on a two -on-one rattled off the crossbar.
“We just had to get our intensity up,” said Sutter. “Johnny (Johnston) came back and scored a nice goal and put it top shelf. The biggest thing is we come out and we’re not intense and teams jump on us and take advantage of it.”
But 1:22 into the overtime session, Ramsay went to the net and was rewarded with a rebound off a shot from Tot to seal the extra point.
“Overall, it was pretty good,” said Tot. “There was maybe 10 minutes where they scored a couple. When we’re up a couple of goals we need to keep it focused and keep it tight. We can’t get too high on ourselves and just bury our chances.”
That, and continuing to handle the adversity that has been following the team around all year, said Preston.
“It’s been going on for a month. The guys don’t get rattled. As a coach, do you like blowing a two-goal lead? No. But do you like winning? Yeah.”
The Hurricanes are back on home ice tonight when they host the Swift Current at 7 p.m. at the Enmax Centre, a night that also doubles as the annual Teddy Bear Toss.

Tanner Craswell and Mitch MacLean did more than stay at Kevin Kvame’s house.
   They made it a home. They made it Kvame’s home, and they made it their home.
   With Craswell and MacLean in his house, Kvame said things were always louder, always more lively.
“It was empty just after they left, said Kvame, the Lethbridge Bulls general manager.
The two lived with Kvame since coming to Lethbridge to play for the Prairie Baseball Academy.
“After they left, I thought, ‘Are those guys coming back, or are they gonna get worried about school again and find something else?’
“And then you start to miss them. And then you hope they come back in January, because it’s just empty without them.”
Officially, Kvame was their billet. But they took over his house, filling the empty rooms and banishing the silence as they invited friends over, joked around and made it a home.
When the two were murdered north of Claresholm early Thursday morning, the victims, along with Lethbridge’s Tabitha Stepple, of an unimaginable murder, Kvame was left homeless.
““It leaves, it leaves a huge black hole.”
Kvame said the two were a big hit with the local baseball community, making Lethbridge a second home.
“I hope so,” said Kvame, who admitted the loss has him wracked with guilt, remorse and most of all, sadness. “I know they did like it here, they had a lot of friends.”
Kvame said he offered to drive the boys to Calgary Thursday, to take them to the airport and see them off as they headed home for the holidays. They refused his offer, and the what-ifs don’t make the tragedy any easier to bear.
Like Prairie Baseball Academy head coach Todd Hubka, for whom both MacLean and Craswell played and Les McTavish of the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball, who coached Craswell for one year, losing a player is a nightmare.
To lose them in a senseless murder is unimaginable, and Hubka said when he talked to his team, he was thankful that Lethbridge College sent over grief counsellors.
“They’re trying to cope,” said Hubka Friday from his coaches’ office at Lloyd Nolan Yard. “We’re trying to cope. There were a lot of questions, a lot of ‘Whys’ and I don’t know. I don’t have those answers, I don’t have any answers.”
The Yard has seen championships won and it heralds its players arrival with the mantra of Pride, Dedication, Opportunity. But on Friday, heads hung low with the weight of a tragedy that makes the cinematic themes of a baseball game seem like pantomime. The few PBA players who have not already left, shuffled through the hallways with red-rimmed eyes and hang-dog expressions.
Kvame, who has spent a lot of time at Lloyd Nolan since Thursday’s news spread, remembered his trip to New York with Craswell last summer.
They hit all the ballparks, and Craswell’s love of the game shone.
“He pointed things out to me I never knew,” said Kvame, who has been before. “You could just hear it everytime we went to a park, he’d find something.”
Craswell, said Kvame, was everybody’s best friend 30 seconds after meeting them. That quick trust set him apart from MacLean, who was more guarded. Until he got comfortable.
“Once he knew you, that was it, you were his best friend,” laughed Kvame. “And he let you know it. They were a lot alike after that, once you got in there.”
As most parents do, Kvame said there were moments he clashed, often more because of what MacLean and Craswell wouldn’t do than what they did. But Craswell, the charmer, could get out of anything.
“You’d be ready to strangle him until he cracked that smile,” said Kvame. “Then, you just couldn’t stay mad. He knew it, he was always like that and you had to like him. You couldn’t be mad at him for long.”
Hubka said their similarities extended beyond the white lines and dugout of the stadiums they played in. Fierce on the field, he said that savage facade gave way when the game ended.
“They knew when the game ended,” said Hubka. “They were good dressing-room guys, definitely.”
The PBA and the Bulls are planning a ceremony of some kind to honour the two, and their families may elect to hold the funerals in Lethbridge.
Because while Charlottetown was their hometown, they had made Lethbridge a home, too.
“I think if you look at the baseball community in southern Alberta, these kids don’t come here for the glitz and glamour,” said McTavish, a former member of the PBA and Bulls. “They come because of the closeness. There’s people here that care about them.”
McTavish, who knew both players but coached Craswell in Vauxhall, told his players to hug their loved ones.
Kvame’s house will be empty when he gets there. He will have memories, moments he shared with them that no one else has. The clashes, jokes and situations that only roommates know about will need to fill the silences.
“They were respectful all the time,” said Kvame, through tears. “You had incidents, you clashed.
“It was no different than any other family.”