Lethbridge Hurricanes ready for a playoff run

The Lethbridge Hurricanes will face off against the Moose Jaw Warriors in the first round of the Western Hockey League playoffs.

The whole season has led to this.

The fifth-seeded Lethbridge Hurricanes are set to kick off what they hope to be a deep playoff run.

They'll face off against the Moose Jaw Warriors in the first round and head coach Brent Kisio says he can feel the energy his team is bringing into the post-season.

"It's just an exciting time; you work all season for this moment. Once the playoffs hit, the margin of error is so small," Kisio said.

"Little plays here, little plays there can swing it. Emotions are so high, it's just a fun time of year."

The Canes haven't played a game in six days, thanks to the time off between the regular and post-season.

But after an intense week of practice, they feel ready to roll.

Hurricanes forward Logan Wormald said, "(we) had some good practices this week. Doing what we need to practice on. We just got to come into this series playing hard."

They’re hoping to avoid a repeat of last year's playoffs, when they were swept in the first round at the hands of the eventual Ed Chynoweth Cup champion Edmonton Oil Kings.

It was a bitter pill for team to swallow, but there's belief this year will be better.

"Obviously that's kind of in the backs of guys' heads," said Hurricanes co-captain, Jett Jones.

"That wasn't a great feeling at all. For us this year we have a better team and a better match up this year so this is a series where we're confident in."

The Moose Jaw Warriors come into the series as the fourth seed in the Eastern conference, giving them home ice advantage for the series.

Four Warriors players, who had been suspended due to an off ice incident in Edmonton on Feb. 3, will rejoin the club for the playoffs.

Kisio anticipates it will be a hard fought series.

"They battle hard, they get inside and they got some guys that're real skilled up front that can hurt you if they get around that crease. And their back end really jumps," he said.

"Mateychuk on the back end is a fast player that jumps in on the rush all the time. So they have threats from all over, but we got to work hard, be smart defensively and we've got to manage pucks."

Game 1 and 2 will be in Moose Jaw March 31 and April 1 respectively.

Game 3 and 4 will be in Lethbridge on April 4 and 5.

All games start at 7 p.m. local time.