Canes win two before Christmas

By Dale Woodard on December 21, 2021.

The Lethbridge Hurricanes ended the 2021 portion of their schedule on a winning note and will start 2022 in a battle for eighth spot in a tight Eastern Conference.

Capping off a home-and-home series with the Medicine Hat Tigers, the Canes prevailed 5-3 Saturday night in Medicine Hat.

That comes on the heels of a 6-4 victory Friday night at the Enmax Centre and the two wins send Lethbridge into the holiday break one game above .500 at 12-11-2-0.

That puts them in a three-way tie for eighth place in the Eastern Conference with the 11-15-3-1 Swift Current Broncos and the 12-14-1-1 Prince Albert Raiders.

The Hurricanes are also one point back of the seventh place Calgary Hitmen (11-11-3-2 and two points up on the 12-16-0-0 Regina Pats.

On Saturday in Medicine Hat, the Tigers battled back from being down 3-1 to tie the game midway through the third period before Lethbridge’s Ty Nash struck for the eventual game-winner with 7:39 remaining before co-captain and defenceman Joe Arntsen added an insurance marker with 11 seconds remaining.

Trevor Thurston and Jett Jones – shorthanded – scored in the first period to give Lethbridge a 2-0 lead after the first period.

Tiger Brayden Boehm got the hosts on the board and cut the Canes lead in half 53 seconds into the second period to make it 2-1, but Hurricanes defenceman Nolan Bentham scored on the power play to restore Lethbridge’s two-goal lead with 2:13 left in the second.

Medicine Hat scored twice in the opening 10:48 of the third as Teague Patton and Lukas Svejkovsky struck for the Tigers to make it 3-3 before Nash handed the Hurricanes the lead they didn’t give back.

Nash added two assists for a three-point night and Bentham added one helper for two points.

Chase Wheatcroft had two assists in the win.

Patton had an assist for two points for Medicine Hat and Tyler MacKenzie chipped in with a pair of assists.

The Hurricanes outshot the Tigers 33-21.

Lethbridge was 1-for-4 on the power play, while the Tigers were 1-for-7.

Hurricanes goaltender Bryan Thomson stopped 18 of 21 shots to improve his record to 9-10-2-0.

Garin Bjorklund stopped 28 shots for the Tigers.

The Hurricanes hit the road after Christmas when they head to Swift Current to take on the Broncos Dec. 27 before facing the Broncos in the rematch Dec. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Enmax Centre.

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