Hurricanes put on Ice

By Dale Woodard on November 2, 2021.

A pre-Halloween slasher flick took place Saturday night at the Enmax Centre.

Unfortunately for the Lethbridge Hurricanes, they weren’t playing the role of Mike Myers, winding up on the receiving end of a 7-0 loss at the hands of the Winnipeg Ice in Western Hockey League play at the Enmax Centre.

Instead, it was Mikey Milne and his high scoring antagonists who sliced and diced their way to the win that improves them to 12-1-0-0 despite being outshot 29-27.

The loss puts the Hurricanes at 5-4-0-0.

On Saturday night, Milne and Connor Geekie each had a goal and two assists and went plus-three as the Ice grabbed a 3-0 lead after the first period before adding a pair in the second and third periods, chasing Canes starting goaltender Bryan Thomson from the crease 5:09 into the second period in favour of backup Jared Picklyk.

The Canes had the chance to draw first blood and perhaps throw a scare into their opponents as veteran forward Noah Boyko rattled a shot off the iron early and import forward Yegor Klavdiev was denied on a close in chance by Ice goaltender Daniel Hauser.

But that’s as spooky as it got for the Ice as Chase Bertholet opened the scoring 7:38 into the first as Winnipeg took over the scoresheet from there.

“I thought we had a really good start,” said Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio. “The guys came out hard and played the right way. Then we just got away from it. We turned over pucks, let them come at us and we just didn’t have enough.

“They’re a good hockey club and we just had too many soft players on our team tonight that didn’t want to compete and battle the way we have to.”

Geekie and Skyler Bruce rounded out the first period scoring for the Ice.

Milne and Jakin Smallwood added second period goals for Winnipeg before Owen Pederson and Cole Muir rounded it out in the third.

Thomson’s night was over after Smallwood made it 5-0 as Picklyk came in.

“He was fine,” said Kisio of his backup, who stopped nine of 11 shots in the final 34:51. “The game was out of reach when he came in. He still gave us a chance to play hard, but there are a lot of other guys who have to do better.”

Thomson stopped 11 of 16 shots, while Hauser turned away all 29 shots he faced for his first career shutout that improves him to 7-0-0-0 this season.

The Ice’s power play was 2-for-3, while the Canes were 0-for-4 with the man advantage.

Winnipeg’s power play is clicking at a league-best 38.6 per cent.

The Hurricanes are eighth at 23.3 per cent.

“They’re a good team. I thought we had some looks and we didn’t capitalize,” said Boyko, who had three shots on net Saturday. “We outshot them, but they capitalized on their chances. We’re going to have to regroup and be ready for Tuesday.”

Tonight will be the Hurricanes next test that won’t get any easier as the team heads to Edmonton to face the Central Division-leading Oil Kings (7-2-1-1).

On Friday, the Oil Kings handed their Ice their first loss of the season with a 3-1 decision in Edmonton.

“Edmonton is a good team as well and we’re going to have a good practice day (Sunday) and get back to work,” said Boyko.

“I think we’re all going to be ready for Tuesday knowing what we did (Saturday).”

“We’re going to have to get some guys on board and playing the right way,” added Kisio. “We’ve done it a lot this year. But tonight, for whatever reason, a lot of our older guys didn’t play the way they have to. We got dominated by a lot of their younger guys.”

After Tuesday’s game in Edmonton, the Hurricanes return to the Enmax Centre Friday night at 7 p.m. when former Hurricane and Lethbridge product Carl Tetachuk and the Moose Jaw Warriors come to town.

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