Hurricanes 5-1 to Tigers to Open Second Half
Lethbridge, AB – The Lethbridge Hurricanes opened the second half of the season with a 5-1 loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday at the VisitLethbridge.com Arena.
The Hurricanes returned after an 11-day Christmas break after earning a come-from-behind 3-2 overtime win over the Edmonton Oil Kings to go into the break on December 16th. It was just the second of eight meetings on the season between the ‘Canes and Tigers. Medicine Hat had a good start to the game outshooting Lethbridge 5-0 in the first five minutes of play. The Tigers had a power play opportunity early in the game when Tomas Malinek was assessed a holding penalty and despite some good looks, Medicine Hat was unable to score on the man advantage. Lethbridge had an opportunity on the man advantage midway through the frame and failed to strike with the best chance coming on a point-blank look for Luke Cozens. In the final minute of play, the Tigers broke the tie with a goal with 34-seconds remaining when Schaeffer Gordon-Carroll buried his eighth of the season to make it 1-0; Bryce Pickford and Jonas Woo earned the assists on the goal. Lethbridge was outshot 13-6 in the first period by Medicine Hat.
It was a special teams filled middle frame which saw a combined six power play in the period. Medicine Hat struck for four goals in the second period as they doubled their lead at the 6:57 mark when Ethan Neutens ripped home his sixth goal of the season beating Koen Cleaver over the blocker bar-down to make it 2-0; Pickford and Woo earned the assists on the goal. The Tigers scored their first of three power play goals in the period when Pickford potted his WHL-leading 26th goal of the year as a pass deflected off a ‘Canes defender and in to make it 3-0. Just under four-minutes later, the Tigers struck again with another power play goal off the stick of Woo who wired a one-timer home for his 17th of the year; Markus Ruck and Pickford picked up the helpers on the goal. Medicine Hat struck again on the man advantage when Liam Ruck scored his 15th goal at the 16:03 mark to open a 5-0 Tigers lead; Markus Ruck and Woo were credited with the assists on the goal. The Tigers outshot the Hurricanes 13-2 in the middle period.
In the third period, the Tigers opened the frame with yet another power play, but the Hurricanes found an early kill before going to the man advantage for the fifth time of their own. Lethbridge peppered Jordan Switzer in the Medicine Hat net on the man advantage and the Tigers goaltender made a pair of great stops to keep it a 5-0 score. Lethbridge broke the shutout bid for Switzer when Andrew Petruk scored his second goal of the season at the 9:31 on a breakaway firing a shot low-blocker to make it a 5-1 score; Kade Duell was credited with the lone assist on the goal. The Hurricanes ended the game with a four-minute power play but couldn’t capitalize as Lethbridge fell 5-1 to Medicine Hat.
The Hurricanes were outshot 9-8 in the third period as the Tigers held the edge 35-16 in the game. Lethbridge went 0/7 on the power play while Medicine Hat was 3/5 with the extra man.
Three stars of the game were:
1) Tigers – #18 Jonas Woo (1 goal, 4 assists)
2) Tigers – #27 Bryce Pickford (1 goal, 3 assists)
3) Tigers – #12 Liam Ruck (1 goal, 1 assist)
The loss for the Hurricanes was their fifth defeat in their last six games as they overall record fell to 11-23-0-1 on the season. Lethbridge’s home record slipped to 6-10-0-1 this season while falling to 6-5-0-1 in their last 12 games on home ice. The ‘Canes have now lost 12-straight games to the Tigers (pre-season, regular season and playoffs combined) dating back to last year.
The Hurricanes will visit the Edmonton Oil Kings on Sunday afternoon at 4:00pm at Rogers Place. Lethbridge will return to the VisitLethbridge.com Arena on Tuesday, December 30th when they host the Oil Kings at 7:00pm. Tickets for the game can be purchased by visiting the VisitLethbridge.com Arena Ticket Centre, by calling 403-329-SEAT (7328) or online at www.visitlethbridgearena.ca.
