PR - Hurricanes

HURRICANES PREPARE FOR ROUND 1 VERSUS THE REDNEXS

The Calgary Hurricanes have propelled themselves back to the top of the TFHL. Capturing the President's Trophy and now looking forward to taking on the 8th seed Rednexs.

SEASON IN REVIEW
The Hurricanes struggled early on in the season. The goaltending was weak and defense lagged even with newly acquired Bryan Mccabe. Quickly goaltender Pascal Leclaire and veteran Bill Guerin were quickly moved out to the Western conference, which then saw Brian Boucher, Martin Cibak and Brian Campbell join the Hurricanes.

FORWARDS
This season's line up for the Hurricanes contains the greatest scoring punch the franchise has ever possessed. Markus Naslund provided 105 points after starting the season on a low end. His linemates in Shawn Bates and Alexandre Svitov tallied 87 points and 79 points respestively. The second line, which could substitute as a first line on many teams saw Brendan Morrison, Jason King and Martin Cibak score 86 points, 76 points and 61 points respectively. 20-year-old sensation Alexandre Svitov finished the season with 45 goals, which was best for
the Hurricanes.

DEFENSE
Bryan Mccabe took him the award as the best Hurricane defenseman as his consistant play throughout the season helped the Hurricanes rejuvenate. Captain Chris Pronger stepped up to the plate at the All-Star break and quickly became one of the league's best defensemen once again. Mccabe finished the season with 62 points while Pronger finished with 57 points. Other notables included Pavel Kubina with 43 points and Brian Campbell finishing the season +19.

GOAL
Critics will all agree, the Hurricanes would not be successful without the sensational goaltending of veteran Brian Boucher. Boucher, who should receive nods for the Vezina Trophy, compiled a 55-17-4 record while being arguably the best goaltender in the TFHL. His 2.63 goals against average and even tallying 13 assists made him among the leaders in statistics for the TFHL.

UP NEXT....The Rednexs

The Hurricanes will be taking on the Rednexs and the top two scorers in the TFHL, Todd Bertuzzi and Alexei Kovalev. The key to beating the Rednexs will be to contain these two players as the Rednexs struggled to make it to the playoffs this season. The Hurricanes high octane scoring machine should be able to take down the weak Rednex defense while countering their own defensive style with goaltender Boucher and defensemen Chris Pronger, Bryan McCabe and Brian Campbell.

Calgary Sun 2005