Canes pull in key pair of points, catch the Broncos

By Dale Woodard on February 3, 2022.

A possibly pivotal pair of points?

The Lethbridge Hurricanes will now find out following a 5-2 win over the Swift Current Broncos in Western Hockey League play Wednesday night at the Enmax Centre.

Playing a makeup game after their match last month was postponed when the Canes were shut down due to WHL COVID protocol, Brayden Edwards took all of 13 seconds into the game to snipe his first career WHL goal, while Alex Thacker added another early-period snipe 49 seconds into the third for a 4-1 lead.

Meanwhile, Hurricanes leading scorer Justin Hall added one goal and two assists, including a key shorthanded snipe with 5:47 left in the second for a 3-1 lead after two periods.

In the bigger numerical picture, the Hurricanes improve to 16-18-2-1 and into a tie with the 15-22-4-1 Broncos for eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

The opportunity is now there for the Canes to build on that and ideally climb higher in the tight Eastern Conference standings when they host the 16-20-0-1 Regina Pats Friday night at the Enmax Centre.

The seventh place Calgary Hitmen are six points up on both teams.

On Wednesday, it started with Edwards’ first career goal as the forward acquired from the Winnipeg Ice went to the Swift Current goal straight off the faceoff and deflected a Joe Arntsen point shot past Broncos goaltender Isaac Poulter.

“We’ve had some trouble scoring and any time you can start off a game like Eddy’s line did and go and get a big goal like that, they played that first shift perfectly, got us the lead and we got our jump right from there,” said Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio.

The Broncos drew even in the latter half of the first when Cole Nagy was the beneficiary of a rebound off Canes goaltender Jared Picklyk to knot things up at 1-1.

But Lethbridge regained the lead before the end of the first when Yegor Klavdiev snapped a shot off the left circle past Poulter for a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes.

The Hurricanes went up 3-1 late in the second period on Hall’s shorthanded marker, which was also his 21st of the season.

“Me and (Ty) Nash got in on the forecheck and got up ice,” said Hall. “They turned the puck over and I skated in and ripped one and found the back of the net.”

Alex Thacker scored 49 seconds into the third and Nash upped the Hurricanes lead to 5-1 at the 4:08 mark before the Broncos added one late from Grayson Burzynski.

Those early-period goals were key, said Hall.

“It gives the boys confidence when we score one early. We get the lead and we can play a little more relaxed. We play our game and focus on our game when we get one first. It’s a lot easier to play.”

The Hurricanes still have five games in hand on the Broncos as the teams move into an eighth place tie.

“We have some games in hand, we have to win them and they’re a team we’re chasing,” said Kisio. “We needed that win and I thought our guys did a really good job coming out and playing hard.”

“It’s massive, it was an emphasis all day,” added Hall of grabbing the points. “It was a playoff game coming in and taking these two points against these guys is massive for us.”

Another chance to grab some key points looms on Friday when the Pats pull into the Enmax Centre.

“It’s another huge game,” said Hall. “We want to be in playoffs at the end of the year and if we want to do that we have to win these games right now.”

Nash added an assist for a two-point night and Arntsen added two helpers.

The Hurricanes out shot the Broncos 35-23.

Picklyk kicked out 21 of 23 shots, while Poulter made 30 saves

The Canes were 0-for-3 on the power play. The Broncos were 0-for-4.

Wednesday’s announced attendance was 2,406.

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