Wormald, Hall pace Canes to much-needed victory

By Dale Woodard on November 20, 2021.

Another multi-point night from Logan Wormald has earned the Lethbridge Hurricanes a win.

The Hurricanes rookie scored the game-winner as the Canes downed the Medicine Hat Tigers 7-3 in Western Hockey League play Friday night at the Enmax Centre.

Wormald scored 6:57 into the third to make it 4-2 and then added another with 3:40 left for a three-point night and a win that improves the Hurricanes to 7-10-0-0 and vaults them to sixth place in a tight Eastern Conference.

The last time the Langley, B.C. product had a multi-point night was a four-point outing in a 6-1 win over the Regina Pats last Saturday in Regina.

Not to get lost in the stats shuffle, Wormald’s linemate and overage forward Justin Hall scored a hat trick and added two assists and, rounding out the top line, Alex Thacker had three helpers in the winning cause. Hall was also plus-six on the night.

At the other end, rookie goaltender Jared Picklyk made 25 saves – a few of them key when the Tigers buzzed late to close it to 4-3 – to earn the win and improve his record to 2-1-0-0.

“Great effort by everybody on our team,” said Wormald, who was plus-five Friday night. “We all put in the best effort we had today and came out from start to finish, that’s for sure.”

The Hurricanes struck first 1:19 in when Hall took a feed from Wormald and did the stick-between-the-legs move to shovel a close-in shot past Tigers goaltender Beckett Langkow for his fifth of the season and a 1-0 lead.

The early chances continued for the Canes as Ty Nash was turned aside by Langkow on a close-in chance and minutes later Noah Boyko shot wide on a wide open net chance.

Lethbridge cashed in on their next chance when Nolan Bentham grabbed a neutral ice turnover and sifted a shot past Langkow for a 2-0 lead 7:23 into the first

The Hurricanes nearly went up 3-0 late in the first, but forward Yegor Klavdiev was denied on a breakaway chance by Langkow to keep it 2-0.

The Tigers cut that lead to one with 56 seconds left in the first when Gleb Ivanov tapped home a one-time feed from Oasiz Wiesblatt to make it 2-1 heading into the first intermission.

Medicine Hat pulled even 2:51 into the second period when Corson Hopwo sniped his seventh of the season past Picklyk from the top of the right circle to make it 2-2.

The Hurricanes got the lead back with 4:46 left in the second and Hall netted his second of the game, finishing off a feed from Thacker to make it 3-2.

Lethbridge doubled their lead 6:57 into the third on Wormald’s eventual game-winner, swatting a loose puck home to make it 4-2.

The Tigers cranked up the pressure and answered right back as Teague Patton finished off a Canes turnover to make it 4-3 with 9:35 to go.

But with Medicine Hat battling back, Hall sent the hats flying with his third of the game to make it 5-3 with 4:59 to go.

Wormald added his second of the game shortly afterwards and Logan Barlage rounded out the scoring with an empty-netter with 53 seconds remaining.

“I thought we played a pretty solid game” said Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio. “There are things we can clean up, for sure. Obviously, we had Thacker, Hall and Wormald flying tonight and I thought Hallsie took the game over at certain points. He played fantastic.

“Piks made a big save that could have tied it and then we go down and score change the momentum from there. There were some timely goals by us late.”

Wormald has three goals and six points in nine games this season.

“It’s unreal,” said Wormald of skating on the top line. “Obviously these guys are really experienced and they helped me out a ton. They’re the big reason I get all my points.”

“He’s been terrific, he’s on our top line and he deserves to be there,” added Kisio of Wormald. “He’s a smart player who moves the puck. He jumps and just keeps getting better and better.”

Langkow kicked out 20 of 26 shots as the Tigers fall to 4-8-3-1.

With starting goaltender Bryan Thomson falling ill prior to the game, Picklyk took the crease Friday.

“I thought Piks came in and did a great job,” said Kisio. “He stepped up and maybe was a little bit shaky at the start, a little nervous at home. But he just got better and better as the game went on.”

The Tigers outshot the Hurricanes 28-27. The Hurricanes were 0-for-1 on the power play, the Tigers were 0-for-2.

Friday’s announced attendance was 3,265.

Notes:

Four WHL players have been added to a revised list of NHL Central Scouting’s Players to Watch list ahead of the 2022 NHL Draft, including one player from Lethbridge.

Local product and Brandon Wheat Kings forward Rylen Roersma and his teammate Zakhar Polshakov along with Victoria Royals forward Marcus Almquist and Swift Current Broncos forward Josh Filmon have all garnered ‘C’ ratings.

Broncos defenceman Owen Pickering’s rating has been boosted from a ‘C’ to a ‘B’ on the latest NHL Central Scouting list.

Roersma leads the Wheat Kings with eight goals in 16 games this season. He also has 14 points in 17 games, good for second on the team.

Roersma was selected in the first round and 16th overall by the Wheat Kings in the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft.

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