Hurricanes comeback falls short against Hitmen

By Dale Woodard on March 22, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDsports@lethbridgeherald.com

A big comeback wasn’t quite in the cards for the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

The Canes were downed 7-4 by the Calgary Hitmen in Western Hockey League play Sunday night at the Enmax Centre.

Wrapping up a three-game series in as many days against the Hitmen, the Hurricanes quickly fell behind 4-1 to Calgary in the second period on three quick, unanswered goals.

A third period push saw the Hurricanes pull within one, but the Hitmen added a pair of empty netters to secure the road win and take the weekend series after a 4-3 overtime win Saturday in Calgary.

The Hurricanes took the opening game of the weekend with a 3-1 victory Friday night at the Enmax Centre to take three of a possible six points.

With Sunday’s loss, the Hurricanes drop to 3-4-1-0, while the Hitmen improve to 4-3-1-0.

The teams exchanged first period goals.

Adam Kydd opened the scoring with his first of the season 5:57 in, but Canes alternate captain Logan Barlage scored on the power play midway through the period to deadlock things at 1-1 after 20 minutes.

The Hitmen grabbed firm control of the game in a span of 3:05 in the second period.

Zac Funk gave Calgary a 2-1 lead and Cael Zimmerman and Kydd’s second of the game quickly paced the visitors to a 4-1 cushion.

The Hitmen padded their lead to 5-1 3:28 into the third on a goal off an odd-man rush by Connor Gabruch before the Hurricanes battled back to make it interesting.

Jett Jones scored on a deflection off a point shot from Joe Arntsen to make it 5-2 before back-to-back goals from Zack Stringer — the second on the power play — made it 5-4 with 4:44 remaining.

The Hurricanes pulled goaltender Bryan Thomson for the extra attacker, but Calgary salted the win with empty net goals from Riley Stotts and Josh Prokop.

Thomson stopped 33 of 38 shots for the Hurricanes, while Hitmen netminder and Taber product Brayden Peters turned aside 32 of 36 shots to earn the win, improving his record to 3-2-0-0.

The Hitmen outshot the Hurricanes 40-36.

Lethbridge was 2-for-5 on the power play. Calgary was 0-for-3.

The Hurricanes return for another three-games-three-days series this weekend, this time against the Medicine Hat Tigers.

The first game is Friday night in Medicine Hat at 7 p.m. before Game 2 returns to the Enmax Centre Friday night at 7 p.m.

The weekend wraps up Sunday in Medicine Hat at 6 p.m.

NOTES — Sunday was World Down Syndrome Day as the Hurricanes wore mismatched socks and honoured Game Day assistant Ryan Roznowsky on the team’s Twitter page as well as during the game with his picture on the video scoreboard.

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