Hurricanes Drop 4-3 Decision to Broncos
Lethbridge, AB – The Lethbridge Hurricanes continued their 2016 ENMAX Pre-Season on Friday night as they welcomed the Swift Current Broncos at the ENMAX Centre ultimately dropping the contest by a 4-3 score.
The Hurricanes iced nearly an opening night roster with Kord Pankewicz as the lone returner not in the line-up. Colton Kroeker, Brayden Burke and Egor Babenko all had multi-point nights in the loss while Aleksi Heponiemi potted three points for the Broncos.
Early in the opening frame, Egor Babenko burst in on the left wing only to be hauled down by Broncos defenseman Max Lajoie resulting a two minute tripping penalty. The Hurricanes didn’t take long to strike on the power play as just 28 seconds into the man advantage, Colton Kroeker cleaned up a rebound left after Travis Child made the first stop on Tyler Wong as the ‘Canes opened the scoring making it 1-0 – Babenko picked up the second assist. The lead, however, was short-lived as just over two minutes later the WHL’s leading scorer in the pre-season, Aleksi Heponiemi, outwaited Stuart Skinner before tucking in the tying goal just 6:43 into the period making it 1-1. Late in the period, the Hurricanes Ethan King assessed a tripping minor, but the Broncos failed to score as the first period ended in a 1-1 tie. Shots favoured the Hurricanes 8-5.
It was a penalty filled second period that saw the Broncos carry most of the play. Despite two breakaway opportunities by the Hurricanes in the period, it was Swift Current that did all the scoring. First at the 7:10 mark, Lane Pederson moved in on the left side and sniped one over the glove of Skinner to give Swift Current their first lead of the game making it 2-1. After the teams traded power play chances to no avail, Carter Folk was issued a five minute major for checking to the head as he hit Pederson up high. On the ensuing power play, the Broncos made good as Glenn Gawdin finished off a beautiful cross-ice pass by Heponiemi to put the Broncos up 3-1 with under a minute left in the middle stanza. Broncos outshot the ‘Canes 16-7 in the second period and held a two goal lead after forty minutes.
The Hurricanes were short two men to start the third period as Wong took a charging minor at the 20-minute mark of the second period. On the ensuing five-on-three, the Broncos scored as Heponiemi set up Max Lajoie just 1:42 into the period as the Broncos went up 4-1. The Hurricanes finally had an answer as with under ten minutes left, Kroeker buried his second of the game and third of the pre-season to cut the lead to two – Brayden Burke and Ryley Lindgren picked up the assists. With under two minutes left, the Broncos Sahvan Khaira was penalized for hooking. On the power play, Babenko shelfed his first of the pre-season with 36 seconds left in the period – Burke and Brady Reagan netted the assists. Unfortunately, the Hurricanes ran out of time as the Broncos hung on to a 4-3 victory.
The Hurricanes outshot the Broncos 11-9 in the third period but trailed the shot department 30-26 in the game. The Hurricanes went 2/5 on the power play while the Broncos were 2/6.
The loss drops the ‘Canes record to 1-2-0-0 in the ENMAX Pre-Season. The ‘Canes are back in action on Saturday night when they travel to Swift Current for the second of the back-to-back before they wrap up the Pre-Season schedule next Thursday and Friday with games in the Crowsnest Pass.
