COURTESY: Darren Steinke, Medicine Hat News    dsteinke@medicinehatnews.com

Last season, the Lethbridge Hurricanes were a team that just wouldn't go away for the Medicine Hat Tigers.

While the Tigers finished with 31 more points in the standings than the Hurricanes, the head-to-head meetings between the teams always seemed to be heated battles. The Tigers were fourth in the WHL's Eastern Conference with a 42-24-2-4 record, while the Hurricanes were 11th with a 29-42-0-1 mark.

Medicine Hat won the season series, but only barely with a 4-4-0-1 record. The clubs open their respective regular season schedules by facing each other tonight at 7 p.m. at the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge. They will go at it again on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at The Arena in Medicine Hat.

"Since I was 16 coming into the league, Lethbridge always brings their A-game against us," said Tigers captain Hunter Shinkaruk. "It is our biggest rivalry.

"This sets the tone for the rest of the season against that team. We have to be ready. It is going to be a battle.

"It is going to be pretty fun to have a home and home to start off the year. I think we are really looking forward to it. We just want to get the season started up here."

Back in March, the Tigers hosted the Hurricanes in the final regular season match of the 2011-12 campaign for both teams. The Tigers led 5-4 going into the final minute, but the Hurricanes showed they weren't going to give up the ship.

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