Hurricanes Winning Streak Ends with Loss to Royals
Lethbridge, AB – The Lethbridge Hurricanes returned to the VisitLethbridge.com Arena on Saturday as they had a four-game winning streak halted with a 3-2 loss to the Victoria Royals.
The game marked the fourth game in a stretch of nine games in nine different cities for the Hurricanes while it was Victoria’s first visit to Lethbridge since the 2022-2023 season. The ‘Canes, who sported special SpongeBob SquarePants themed jerseys for RE/MAX Presents: Nickelodeon Night for Children’s Miracle Network, had a strong start to the game as they peppered Spencer Michnik early but couldn’t solve the Royals netminder. Victoria opened the scoring with a four-on-four goal by Teydon Trembecky who slipped one under Koen Cleaver to make it 1-0 with 5:28 remaining in the period. Lethbridge was outshot 8-6 in the first period by Victoria.
Early in the second period, the Royals added to their lead with a power play goal at the 4:07 mark when Brayden Boehm jumped on a loose puck and roofed it home for his fourth goal of the season to make it 2-0. The Hurricanes cut the lead in half near the midway point of the period as Logan Wormald wired home his team-leading 13th goal of the year to extend a personal point-streak to a career-high nine games; Brayden Edwards earned the first assist on the goal to extend his point-streak to 11-straight contests while Cleaver earned his second helper of the season on the goal to make it 2-1. Just under two-minutes later, however, Victoria restored their two-goal lead with another power play goal by Justin Kipkie to make it 3-1; Keaton Verhoeff and Trembecky picked up the assists. The Hurricanes outshot the Royals 17-8 in the middle frame but trailed by two.
Lethbridge pressed in the third period outshooting Victoria 12-3 in the final twenty minutes. Early in the frame, Leo Braillard was hauled down on a breakaway resulting in a penalty shot and the Swiss-import made no mistake ripping home his ninth goal of the year over the glove of Michnik just 3:37 into the period to pull the ‘Canes to within a goal. Lethbridge continued to pepper the Royals netminder and came close on two great chances in point blank range by Edwards and Port who were denied by the glove of Michnik. The Hurricanes pulled the goaltender late in the game but failed to find an equalizer as the Royals – despite being outshot 29-11 in the final forty minutes – held on to a 3-2 victory.
The Hurricanes outshot the Royals 35-19 in the game. Lethbridge was 0/2 on the power play while Victoria was 2/3 with the extra man.
Three stars of the game were:
1) Royals – #22 Teydon Trembecky (1 goal, 1 assist)
2) ‘Canes – #19 Brayden Edwards (1 assist)
3) Royals – #35 Spencer Michnik (33-saves)
The loss for the Hurricanes ended a season-long four-game winning streak as they home-ice record fell to 8-2-1-0 on the season. Lethbridge fell to 12-6-1-0 on the season with the defeat as their record against the BC Division fell to 1-1-1-0 this season.
The Hurricanes will open a five-game road trip on Wednesday, November 20th when they visit the Everett Silvertips at 8:00pm MT. Lethbridge will return home to welcome the Moose Jaw Warriors on Tuesday, December 3rd at 7:00pm 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.
