Hurricanes Suffer Third Straight Loss; Fall 7-4 to Tigers
Medicine Hat, AB – The Lethbridge Hurricanes opened a two-game road weekend with a 7-4 loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers at Co-op Place on Saturday.
Lethbridge made their first trip to Medicine Hat this season as newcomer Kyle Heger returned to face his former team while Luke Cozens faced the Hurricanes for the first time in his second game with Medicine Hat. The Tigers jumped out to a great start scoring just seven seconds into the game when Kade Stengrim jammed home a rebound to make it 1-0; Jonas Woo earned the lone assist on the goal as the Hurricanes surrendered the opening goal for the second straight game on the first shift. Medicine Hat doubled their lead at the 4:20 mark as Andrew Basha fired home his second goal of the year since rejoining the Tigers to make it 2-0; Woo and Liam Ruck picked up the helpers on the goal. The Hurricanes cut the Tigers lead in half with a power play goal at the 10:35 mark by Nathan Maloney who buried a one-timer home for his fourth of the year; Kade Duell and Heger picked up the assists on the goal. Just under four-minutes later, the Tigers restored their two-goal lead with a redirect goal by Dayton Reschny to make it a 3-1 game. Medicine Hat peppered Koen Cleaver on a late power play in the period, but the ‘Canes netminder was outstanding in the first period making 21-saves as the Tigers outshot the Hurricanes 24-8 in the first period.
The Tigers opened the second period with 28-seconds remaining on a carry-over penalty with Kayden Longley in the penalty box for goaltender interference. Lethbridge would kill the remainder of the penalty to keep it a two-goal contest. The Hurricanes pulled to within one at the midway point of the period when Tyden Lafournaise broke free on a breakaway before making a move to the forward slipping home his sixth goal of the season making it a 3-2 contest. Medicine Hat responded with two goals in 15-seconds; first, Woo would strike for his 20th goal of the year at 12:21 before Liam Ruck struck for his 22nd of the season to open a 5-2 game. With just 2:34 remaining in the period, Tigers captain Bryce Pickford scored his WHL-leading 32nd goal of the year to tie Kris Russell’s single-season record for goals by a defenceman to make it a 6-2 game after forty minutes of play. The Tigers outshot the Hurricanes 12-3 in the period as they held the edge 36-11 thru two periods of play.
In the third period, the Hurricanes cut the lead to 6-3 when Easton Daneault ripped a shot through the legs of Jordan Switzer at the 7:11 mark for his seventh of the season; Andrew Petruk picked up the helper on the goal. Just under eight minutes later, the Tigers struck when Cozens buried his first with Medicine Hat sneaking one through Cleaver making it a 7-3 game; Markus Ruck and Basha earned the helpers on the goal. The Hurricanes added a late goal by Duell with 2:19 remaining in the game as he wired a shot over the glove of Switzer to make it a 7-4 final.
The Hurricanes were outshot by the Tigers 11-10 in the third period and 47-21 in the game. Lethbridge went 1/3 on the power play and 5/5 on the penalty kill.
Three stars of the game were:
1) Tigers – #18 Jonas Woo (1 goal, 3 assists)
2) Tigers – #34 Andrew Basha (1 goal, 2 assists)
3) Tigers – #14 Dayton Reschny (1 goal, 1 assist)
The loss for the Hurricanes was their third-straight defeat as they fell to 1-7-0-0 in their last eight games and 2-10-0-0 in their last dozen games. Lethbridge’s road record slipped to 5-16-0-0 on the season as they suffered their eighth-straight road loss. The ‘Canes overall record fell to 12-28-0-1 this season while dropping their 13th-straight defeat to the Tigers dating back to last year.
The Hurricanes will visit the Calgary Hitmen on Sunday at 4:00pm at Scotiabank Saddledome before returning to the VisitLethbridge.com Arena on Wednesday to welcome the Red Deer Rebels 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.
