Hurricanes close out three-in-four stretch with loss to Hitmen

By Lethbridge Herald on December 7, 2025.

Nathan Reiter

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Hurricanes couldn’t finish a three game in four night stretch on the right foot with a 4-1 loss to the Calgary Hitmen at the VisitLethbridge.com Arena on Saturday night.

Hurricane head coach Matt Anholt says he wasn’t pleased with the effort.

“(It’s) disappointing. We haven’t been good in back to backs all year. Our older guys, for the most part, didn’t really try at all tonight. I don’t really know what else to say about that performance.”

Lethbridge would nearly open the scoring as Tyden Lafournaise would fire a shot that got through Calgary netminder Aidan Hesse, but was scooped off the goal line by Koy Funk before it could cross the goal line.

Keaton Jundt would open the scoring at the 8:19 mark of the first period with his fourth goal of the campaign, finding a loose puck and depositing it past Koen Cleaver. Hayden Schollar and Koy Funk provided the helpers.

In the second period, Calgary struck three times with Kale Dach, Ben MacBeath and Ethan Moore all finding the back of the net for the Hitmen.

Lethbridge would break the shutout bid at the 18:25 mark of the third period as captain Logan Wormald would bank a rebound off the pad of Hesse and in for his 14th goal of the season. Grady Pichette and Carsen Adair would be credited with the assists.

In goal, Koen Cleaver made 35 stops for Lethbridge on the night.

Lethbridge finished out a four game homestand with a 2-2-0-0 record, including a three game in four night stretch that saw losses against Red Deer and Calgary and a win in the Teddy Bear toss game against Wenatchee on Friday.

Anholt says there were some positives from the week, but some things will need to change for Lethbridge still.

“I liked our goaltenders. I thought last night Leif Oaten was the reason we won the game. Tonight, Cleaver was the only reason that it wasn’t double digits. For the most part I liked, some of the play by our defenseman. Maybe not as consistent as they’d like, but we did some good things and took some steps and moments. The penalty kill took a step I think in the three games, but just lots of growing, lots of disappointing efforts by a lot of our top players.”

The Hurricanes have four games remaining before the holiday break, with three games coming up on an East Division road swing next week beginning Wednesday in Brandon.

Anholt says he wants to see a higher compete level from Lethbridge on the trip.

“I think we need to see some passion, some juice. I hope guys aren’t thinking about Christmas too early. We got a hard road trip, we got Edmonton as our last game. Four really hard games and if we’re going to play like that against those teams, we’re not going to be very happy at the results. I think when it’s all said and done, we know what we are and what our brand of hockey needs to be in order to win games and at least even be close in games. That wasn’t it tonight and it wasn’t it against Red Deer. I think we have a long ways to go.”