Hurricanes clinch seventh place with win over Hitmen
By Lethbridge Herald on April 12, 2022.
Justin Seward
Lethbridge Herald
The Lethbridge Hurricanes secured seventh place in the Eastern Conference after defeating the Calgary Hitmen 5-1 at the Enmax Centre on Saturday night.
“Yeah, I thought it was a really good win,” said Canes defenceman Brayden Edwards.
“Every line was buying in tonight and we played a full three periods. So, we’re happy with our effort tonight.”
Edwards’ response to playing with motivation after the previous night’s overtime loss to Red Deer was , “We thought we played a really strong game yesterday, but ultimately things didn’t go in our favour in the end. But we tried to carry that momentum into today and I think we did.”
Edwards says today they were able to bury their opportunities.
Head coach Brent Kisio says securing a playoff spot was a big goal of theirs.
“I thought our guys did a good job of fighting for that,” he said
With a lot of guys injured, Kisio thought a lot of the younger guys came out, played hard and did a lot of good things against the Hitmen.
“I think we’ve been doing a great job building upon games and as games go along, we seem to get better and better as it goes,” he said.
“And we keep talking about it, if we just keep with our structure and stay with it and play hard and be a physical team, the third periods will tend to go our way.”
The Hurricanes opened the scoring as defenceman Tristen Doyle scored his first WHL goal over the shoulder of Hitmen goaltender Brayden Peters 1:08 into the contest.
Alex Thacker and Justin Hall drew the assists on Doyle’s marker.
Calgary would tie it up 3:20 later on David Adaszynki’s seventh of the season from Mason Finley and Steel Quiring.
Jett Jones walked in all alone in tight and backhanded in his 19th of the season at 1:21 of the second and pulled Lethbridge ahead 2-1.
“ Lav (Tyson Laventure) made a really good play, you know, getting the puck to me and I was all alone in front,” said Jones.
“I had some luck on my backhand tonight — so maybe I’ve got to practice that a little more and use that a little more. The play,it was just the right spot at the right time and my linemates make great plays.”
Canes captain Joe Arntsen gave the home team some breathing room as he wristed one home from the point at 8:11 of the final frame. Chase Pauls provided the helper.
Liekit Reichle motored down the left wing and snapped it over the glove of Peters at 16:59 of the third to make the game 4-1.
Jones scored his second of the night at 19:22 of the third to give the Hurricanes a 5-1 victory.
Shots were 28-21 Lethbridge.
Lethbridge went 0-for-1 and Calgary 0-for-5 on the powerplay.
Securing the seventh seed came after punching their ticket to the postseason the night before in an overtime loss to Red Deer.
It was also confirmed after the game the Hurricanes will face off against the Edmonton Oil Kings in the first round of the WHL playoffs, beginning April 21 on the road.
“I think just keep having the mindset we have,” said Edwards, on staying sharp for the playoffs.
“Even though we’ve made playoffs, the job’s not over. We want to keep on carrying momentum into playoffs.”
The Hurricanes will wrap up the home portion of the regular season on Friday night against the Moose Jaw Warriors.
An awards ceremony will commence prior to the game.
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