Lethbridge, Alta.- The playoff winds are blowing into Lethbridge.
With a 2-0 win over the Saskatoon Blades on Tuesday night, the Hurricanes have secured a berth in the 2025 WHL Playoffs.
Goaltender Jackson Unger recorded his second shutout of the season, turning aside 29 shots, while veteran defenceman Logan McCutcheon tallied a goal and an assist to push the Hurricanes past the Blades and into the post-season picture.
Chase Petersen broke the ice 12:35 into the first period, giving the Hurricanes a 1-0 advantage. The goal from the 16-year-old product of Mossbank, Sask., went on to stand as the eventual game-winner as the Hurricanes locked the door from there.
Defence has been a hallmark of Lethbridge’s game in 2024-25, with the Canes consistently ranking among the stingiest teams in the league.
The blueline is helmed by reigning WHL Scholastic Player of the Year and team Captain, Noah Chadwick.
Chadwick, a Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, leads all Canes blueliners in scoring while surpassing 200 career games played and 100 points this season.
Hurricanes brass also bolstered the defensive corps with some splashy trades throughout the campaign.
In early December, Lethbridge added championship experience by bringing in 2024 Ed Chynoweth Cup winners Brayden Yager and Jackson Unger.
Unger, 20, is a former WHL East Division First Team All-Star and has been putting up career-best numbers with the Hurricanes.
He’s also in the midst of a second-straight 20-win season.
At the 2025 WHL Trade Deadline, Lethbridge struck another blockbuster deal with the acquisition of Seattle Kraken defensive prospect Caden Price, a highly-touted veteran with more than 200 games of experience.
The Saskatoon, Sask. product also averaged a point-per-game with a goal and 10 assists in the 2024 WHL Playoffs.
Up front, Yager has led the charge from the get-go.
The Winnipeg Jets prospect and two-time WHL Most Sportsmanlike Player has hit key milestones in 2024-25 while leading Lethbridge in scoring.
Yager is chasing a third 30-plus goal season and has suited up for his 250th career regular season game while breezing past the 300-point marker.
He’s one of four 20-plus goal scorers on the team, joining alternate captain Brayden Edwards, Swiss World Juniors star Leo Braillard and veteran Logan Wormald.
The team packs an additional punch with 2024 Nashville Hurricanes pick Miguel Marques and 2023 WHL Champion Jordan Gustafson (Vegas Golden Knights), though the pair are currently sidelined by injury.
This marks the eighth straight season that the Hurricanes have qualified for playoffs.
Lethbridge finished as the 1996-97 Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy winners as regular season champions and captured the franchise’s first WHL Championship later that spring.
The 1996-97 Hurricanes were led by future NHLers Byron Ritchie, whose son, Ryder, is a Minnesota Wild prospect currently playing with the Canes’ rival Medicine Hat Tigers, and journeyman defenceman Chris Phillips, who won WHL Rookie of the Year in 1996 and WHL Defenceman of the Year in 1997.
The squad reached the 1997 Memorial Cup Final but ultimately fell to the host Hull Olympiques.
Lethbridge mostly recently reached the WHL Championship series in 2007-08, though the Spokane Chiefs would come out on top.
With a 36-19-2-1 record, the Canes sit third in the Central Division and fourth in the Eastern Conference. Lethbridge will continue a four-game road trip on Wednesday night as they visit the East Division-leading Prince Albert Raiders (33-19-3-1) on Wednesday, February 26.
The Hurricanes’ quest for the second title in franchise history begins this spring when the WHL Playoffs kick off on March 28, 2025.
