Special team struggles sink Hurricanes in loss to Tigers

By Lethbridge Herald on December 27, 2025.

Nathan Reiter
Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Hurricanes couldn’t start the second half of the WHL season on the right foot, falling 5-1 to the Medicine Hat Tigers at the VisitLethbridge.com Arena on Saturday night.

Hurricane head coach Matt Anholt says he was disappointed by the team’s effort.

“It’s disappointing. That team over there is a lot better than us for a reason. They’ve picked high in the draft ahead of us over the last six years. It’s a disappointing effort but that team’s first in our division for a reason and we’re in the bottom of the standings for a reason. We’re one of the youngest teams in the league so you got to take some of the good with the bad obviously. Tonight I think we just got to up our compete level. Good thing our goalie was really good.”

With just 34.6 seconds to go in the first period, Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll would open the scoring for Medicine Hat with his eighth goal of the season. The Salt Lake City, Utah product would find a rebound and fire a wrist shot between the blocker and pad of Koen Cleaver. Bryce Pickford and Jonas Woo were credited with the assists.

Shots favoured Medicine Hat 13-6 after the opening frame.

Medicine Hat would pull away in the second period thanks to a trio of power play goals. In total, the Tigers went three for five on the man advantage. Lethbridge did not convert on seven power play opportunities.

Anholt says there were some details Lethbridge didn’t attend to on the penalty kill throughout the evening.

“Our ability to process needs to be better, all very simple things. The first goal against is (just) a really tough break off a skate and it goes in through our goalie’s legs but that’s not our goalie’s fault, it’s just a tough bounce. The second one is a lack of understanding of where the dangerous guys are and it’s a one-timer through the seam and our sticks aren’t there for whatever reason. The third one, we decide that we can’t get in a shooting lane and it goes through a lot of bodies. It’s obviously an unfortunate one, but it’s all things that we talked about before the game.”

Ethan Neutens would double the Tiger lead at the 6:57 mark of the middle frame as the 20-year-old would beat Cleaver with a wrist shot from the right circle for his sixth of the season. Pickford and Woo picked up their second points of the night with the assists.

Pickford would strike for his WHL leading 26th goal of the season on the power play at the 8:43 mark as the Tiger captain’s shot would go off the skate of a Hurricane defender and past Cleaver. Woo picked up his third point of the night with a helper with Liam Ruck picking up the secondary.

The Tigers would convert on another power play opportunity just over four minutes later as Jonas Woo’s 17th goal of the season would extend the Medicine Hat lead to four. Pickford and Ruck provided the assists.

The third Tiger power play goal would come off the tape of Liam Ruck as the 17-year-old would fire a shot from the point that snuck its way through Cleaver for his 15th goal of the campaign. His twin brother Markus Ruck picked the primary assist. Jonas Woo picked up the secondary assist for his fifth point of the contest.

Lethbridge would get on the board at the 9:31 mark as Andrew Petruk would win a footrace for a loose puck and slide it past Jordan Switzer on a partial breakaway for his second of the season. Kade Duell had the lone helper.

Koen Cleaver made 30 stops in net for Lethbridge while Jordan Switzer made 15 saves for the Tigers.

The Hurricanes return to action on Sunday afternoon with a 4 p.m. matinee at Roger’s Place against the Edmonton Oil Kings. Puck drops at 4 p.m.