Canes defencemen deliver in Sunday’s win

By Dale Woodard on April 27, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDsports@lethbridgeherald.com

One defenceman for the Lethbridge Hurricanes scored his first career Western Hockey League goal on Sunday.

Another veteran defenceman has put up his share of points in his three years, but the two assists he posted Sunday in a 4-1 win over the Calgary Hitmen in Calgary put him in elite franchise company.

Canes rookie blue-liner Logan McCutcheon scored his first WHL goal and Alex Cotton potted two helpers to move into a tie for ninth in scoring among Hurricanes defencemen.

Cotton, a draft pick of the Detroit Red Wings, upped his career totals to 102 points in 142 games,him into a tie with Lee Sorochan for ninth on the all-time list.

The two defenceman’s contributions allowed the Hurricanes to end the weekend on a winning note and improve to 8-10-2-0 following a 6-3 loss Friday in Calgary and a 7-2 setback Saturday night at the Enmax Centre.

With the Canes trailing 1-0 on a goal from Calgary’s Sean Tschigerl, McCutcheon cued the comeback with his first career goal with 6:13 left in the first.

“I had just gotten out on the ice and saw the opportunity to jump in and get ahead of the play a little bit,” said McCutcheon. “Boyks (Noah Boyko) made a really nice play up and I was able to chip it around the D-man and walk in and get the shot short side.

“It feels amazing. It’s like a lifelong dream to score your first WHL goal. Now that I’ve gotten it, it’s an incredible feeling and something I’ll never forget.”

Logan Barlage added a pair of goals and Boyko rounded out the scoring with his 10th of the season, equalling his career best in a season for goals.

At the other end, local product Carl Tetachuk kicked out 40 of 41 shots for the win that improves his record to 3-6-2-0 this season.

Taber’s Brayden Peters stopped 18 of 22 shots he faced on Sunday.

Sunday’s game was only the second time the Hurricanes managed a win after giving up the game’s first goal, having gone 1-10-2 when getting scored on first prior to that.

After the loss Friday in Calgary when the Canes fell behind 4-0 in the first period in a span of 3:11 and the setback Saturday at the Enmax Centre in which the Hitmen blew open a 2-2 tie with five unanswered goals — including two shorthanded goals during the same infraction in the third period — Barlage said a group chat preceded Sunday’s game.

“We know how good of a team we are and it’s just a matter of going out and executing every night,” said the product of Humboldt who now has seven goals and 19 points in 20 games, good for third in team scoring.

“We said there are five games left, let’s just go out and leave it all on the table, have fun and win or lose as a team or whatever it is.”

On Friday, the Hurricanes clawed back to within one to make it 4-3 on a pair of goals from Cotton and captain Dino Kambeitz before the Hitmen pulled away with a pair of goals to salt the win.

On Saturday at the Enmax Centre, goals from Liam Kindree and Chase Wheatcroft made it 2-2 midway through the second period, but Calgary drained three goals in the final 6:21 of the second on goals from Cael Zimmerman, Zac Funk and Tschigerl.

Josh Prokop and Tschigerl — completing his hat trick bid — scored shorthanded midway through the third to deliver the dagger to the hosts.

Brandon Whynott added the other Calgary goal in the first period.

“I thought the first two nights we played fine,” said Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio. “We just has two stretches of four or five minutes in both games where we just fell too far behind and couldn’t come back.

“The first game we battled hard and on the second night the same thing happened and we just couldn’t come back. (Sunday) we played a good game. I thought our third period was our best period and that’s how we have to play.”

McCutcheon got things going with his game-tying goal.

“He’s been so good all year long and getting better and better,” said Kisio of the defenceman the Hurricanes drafted in the third round and 60th overall in the 2019 WHL bantam draft. “He’s so smart offensively and he’s getting better defensively. He works hard with his feet and his hockey sense is elite. I think it was only matter of time until he scored. He scored the one goal and had a chance to score another that hit the post as well.”

McCutcheon’s goal gives him nine points in 19 games in his rookie season.

The five-foot-nine, 150-pound, 19-year-old also got in four games with the Canes in 2019-20.

“It’s been a different year, but I think its gone well,” said McCutcheon. “It’s been a lot of fun just being in the same building with the entire team. I think I’ve grown as a player and as a person through everything and I want to keep getting better and better as everything goes on.”

The Canes are back in action this weekend when they face the Medicine Hat Tigers in a trio of games.

Game 1 goes Thursday at the Enmax Centre at 7 p.m. before heading to Medicine Hat Saturday.

Follow @@DWoodardHerald on Twitter

Comments are closed.