Hurricanes Fall 4-3 in Overtime to the Giants on Friday
Lethbridge, AB – The Lethbridge Hurricanes continued a four-game homestand on Friday with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Vancouver Giants at the VisitLethbridge.com Arena.
It marked the first visit Vancouver had made to Lethbridge since November 4, 2022 – a span of 707 days. Newcomer Shane Smith made his Hurricanes debut and was in the starting lineup as he skated on a line with Hayden Pakkala and Leo Braillard. Lethbridge came close early on a strong chance by the ‘Canes top line, but goaltender Matthew Hutchison turned aside Logan Wormald. Vancouver had a pair of early power play opportunities, but the Lethbridge’s strong penalty kill kept the league’s best power play at bay. The Hurricanes opened the scoring with their third shorthanded goal of the season at the 8:51 mark as Wormald buried a centering pass from Brayden Edwards on a two-on-one to make it 1-0 Lethbridge. Late in the period, Vancouver had their third man advantage, and came close to tying the game when former Hurricane Tyson Zimmer wired a shot off the crossbar as the ‘Canes lead by one after one period. The Giants held the shots on goal 11-9 in the opening frame.
Vancouver tied the game early in the second period when Zimmer cashed in a loose puck in front after Ty Halaburda centered a puck that fooled Brady Smith – the Giants equalized the game just 1:38 into the frame. Just under four-minutes later, the Giants pulled ahead as Tyler Thorpe wired a wrist-shot off the crossbar and into to put Vancouver ahead 2-0; Ryan Lin and Halaburda picked up on the assists on the goal. The Hurricanes had a pair of power play opportunities in the middle frame but couldn’t find a tying goal as Hutchison stopped all 11 shots the ‘Canes had in the period; the Giants just had six.
The Hurricanes pulled even at the midway point of the third period as Leo Braillard redirected a Logan McCutcheon point shot for his team-leading fifth goal at the 10:55 mark to make it a 2-2 game; Will Sharpe earned the second assist on the goal. Just over two-minutes later, Lethbridge pulled ahead with a power play by Kooper Gizowski who banged home a loose puck in the crease for his second of the season giving the Hurricanes a 3-2 lead; Braillard and Sharpe picked up the assists on the go-ahead goal. Vancouver drew even with 3:30 remaining in the period as Aaron Obobaifo scored a beautiful goal on a partial breakaway before backhanding home his sixth goal of the season to tie the game 3-3 and force overtime.
It was the second time this season that both the Hurricanes and Giants had gone past 60-minutes. Just 12-seconds into the extra session, Vancouver’s Cameron Schmidt accelerated through and ripped home a back-hand shot for his league-leading ninth goal of the season to give the Giants a come-from-behind 4-3 overtime victory.
The Hurricanes were outshot 31-30 in the contest. Lethbridge went 1/4 with the power play while going 4/4 on the penalty kill.
Three stars of the game were:
1) ‘Canes – #28 Leo Braillard (1 goal, 1 assist)
2) Giants – #4 Ryan Lin (1 assist)
3) ‘Canes – #17 Will Sharpe (2 assists)
The loss for the Hurricanes was their first defeat at home this season as they fall to 3-0-1-0 thru their first four games of the year at the VisitLethbridge.com Arena. Lethbridge falls to 4-1-1-0 to open the regular season while it marks the last three meetings between Vancouver and Lethbridge to end 4-3 in extra time.
The Hurricanes will welcome the Brandon Wheat Kings in the second of a two-game set on Saturday night at 6:00pm at the VisitLethbridge.com Arena. Tickets can be purchased by visiting the Yates Memorial Theatre or VisitLethbridge.com Arena Ticket Centre, by calling 403-329-SEAT (7328) or online at www.visitlethbridgearena.ca.
