On Saturday, the Calgary Hitmen took a third straight loss to division their rivals, the Edmonton Oil Kings, after a dismal five-game homestand where the team only acquired three of a possible ten points. With two East Division games on the schedule this week, Calgary looks to rebound from what has been a November to forget thus far. The Hitmen are in the middle of their week-long break and will be welcoming back Sean Tschigerl who recently competed at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge for Saturday’s game in Saskatoon.
The Hitmen open their stint of road games on Saturday against the Blades at the SaskTel Centre. Home ice for Saskatoon so far has proven to be a massive advantage as the team has only lost one of eight games played on home ice in regulation. While the Hitmen have been decent on the road, they have struggled against the Blades in their two meetings this year. In particular, Eric Florchuk and Tristen Robins have both been dominant in the two contests. Florchuk has recorded five of his nine goals against the Hitmen, while Robins has three goals along with two helpers. Nolan Maier, who will be competing in the CIBC Canada vs. Russia series along with Carson Focht and Jett Woo, has also been an integral part of the Blades season thus far, in addition to coming up big in both games against Calgary. After the Hitmen tested Todd Scott with a season low 15 shots last Saturday, it is likely that Maier will be challenged with a high volume of shots.
The following evening, the Hitmen hit the ice for the first time in Prince Albert this season. Despite the Raiders being in second place in the entire WHL at the moment, Prince Albert was the only club Calgary beat in regulation during their recent hom stand while also being the only team Calgary scored four or more goals against. In this win, the Hitmen did a terrific job of shutting down Aliaksei Protas who has been flying high this season, tied for the league lead with 30 points, including 13 goals. Protas was limited mainly to non-threatening perimeter opportunities with four shots and a minus-1 rating. It will be crucial once again for the Hitmen to limit the chances of Protas. However, an ongoing issue has also been discipline. The Raiders only capitalized on one man advantage last time the two teams met. But Prince Albert was able to wear down the Calgary penalty killers with excellent puck movement and extend their control of the play past the power play, thus creating more quality opportunities off of tired defenders.
The Hitmen will play their next home game Friday, November 29th, after a five-game road stint that finishes off on the 23rd against the Moose Jaw Warriors.
The Hitlist:
- Sean Tschigerl recorded a goal and an assist in five games with Team Canada Black at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge. Team Black won all three round-robin games in overtime or a shootout before being knocked out of medal contention in the quarterfinals by Team Russia.
- Calgary Hitmen are currently 6th in the WHL with 236 PIM and averaging 13.9 PIM per game.
- Prior to Blake Allan’s arrival, Calgary was 72.3% on the penalty kill. Since acquiring the 18-year-old centreman, the Hitmen have allowed just four goals on 29 shorthanded attempts for 86.2%.
