With the air a little more casual than normal the thought was we may not be ready but effort is not determined by how you get dressed before your play but what you’re willing to do once the puck drops. Just like a flick of the switch the Hurricane were off.

Dirty ice is not the ideal situation for a puck moving team who likes the fast, clean ice but you learn to adapt. Cape Breton we found out early had made some adaptations of their own since our last meeting as the big forwards were working hard and the Cougar d-men were holding the line. Through the first period to the cleaning the score was even but the effort of the Hurricane players was there and they would not be caught off guard this night before getting up to speed.

The second would see the Hurricane doing a better job of applying pressure and with a quick transition from the back end Morgan Messenger (unassisted) wheeled through the neutral zone and fired a shot before the Cougar goaltender could get set to ignite the Hurricane bench. The excitement was short lived though as what appeared to be a hard dump in by the Cougars took a couple of crazy bounces off the end boards and caught in our goal keepers skate barely crossing the goal line.

If you needed something to keep you on the edge of your seats (like you needed that) Morgan Messenger gets hauled down and awarded a penalty shot. A nice move was matched with a Gumby like save to hold the game at one.

So we enter the third period looking for the winner. Determined to shut down the Cape Breton efforts the Hurricane d-men were denying any and all attempts by the Cougars to get shots. When a Cougar defensemen tried to turn up ice with five minutes gone in the third he was met by Morgan Messenger who out muscled him off the puck to attack the net from the corner. A sprawling Cougar defensemen attempted to take away the cross ice pass but a nice saucer pass over him allowed Josh Shatford (M Messenger) to tee it up and bury it in the empty net before Gumby could reappear and get a leg across.  

A shutdown effort from then on kept Cape Breton at bay vaulting the Hurricane into semi-final Sunday. Hurricane 2 - Cougars 1. Next up Moncton

Button down the hatches …pick us some flashlights and candles… looks like the wind is picking up something fierce… this has been a test of the emergency hockey broadcast system!

..…stay tuned to this station for further updates....…stay tuned to this station for further updates...…