Thomson and Tetachuk put up a wall in Canes 1-0 shootout win

By Lethbridge Herald on February 15, 2022.

Herald photo by Dale Woodard A loose puck lies in the crease in front of Lethbridge Hurricanes goaltender Bryan Thomson as Moose Jaw forward Daemon Hunt and Canes defenceman Kade Nolan battle in front in second period Western Hockey League action Tuesday night at the Enmax Centre.

Dale Woodard – Lethbridge Herald

First goal wins. 

Last goal wins.

Neither one of those happened – although one was disallowed – as the Lethbridge Hurricanes hosted the Moose Jaw Warriors in Western Hockey League play Tuesday night at the Enmax Centre.

However, it was the Canes who managed to come away with the pair of points and Hurricanes goaltender Bryan Thomson showed for the second straight game why he apparently loves playing against his home town team following a 1-0 shootout win.

In a crease battle of two former teammates which included Lethbridge boy and former Hurricane Carl Tetachuk in the Warriors goal, the teams battled through a scoreless 60 minutes as both goaltenders made 30 saves each.

Fittingly, there was only one goal in the shootout and it came off the stick of Hurricane Yegor Klavdiev in the fourth round as the Hurricanes grab a crucial win that improves them to 19-20-2-1 and moves them into sole possession of eighth place in the Eastern Conference, one point up on the 17-24-5-1 Swift Current Broncos, who lost 3-2 in overtime to the Brandon Wheat Kings Tuesday night in Swift Current.

The Warriors thought they had the first goal of the game with 5:25 left in the second when Cordel Larson scored on the power play, but after a video review it was ruled the play was offside, negating the goal and keeping it scoreless.

In the meantime both goalies and former teammates kept duking it out amidst a few other chances, including Canes froward Briley Wood, who almost had his first WHL point of the season in the second period, but rang his chance off the post behind Tetachuk.

Nothing else crossed the goal line until Klavdiev found the back of the net in the shootout.

Not surprisingly, Thomson and Tetachuk were the first and second stars, respectively, of the night.

“I thought they were outstanding,” said Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio. “It was a goalie battle on both sides and we’ve seen Tets play like that. He competes and battles and Thommy is the same way. It’s two good goalies playing hard. There were a lot of opportunities on both sides and both teams battled hard. It was a good hockey game.”

The teams skated through a scoreless first period as the Canes outshot the Warriors 12-11.

The scoreless draw continued into the second until Larson netted what looked like the game’s first goal until the video replayed showed it was offside

Shortly afterwards the Canes were given another golden chance to draw first blood when Alex Thacker fed Ty Nash alone in front of the Warriors goal, but Nash shot high on Tetachuk, a chance that had the Lethbridge forward gazing skyward afterwards.

“It was a hard area to go around the net tonight,” said Kisio. “Both teams kept it to the outside, battled hard and let the goalies see the pucks. When Tetachuk and Thomson see the puck, they’re going to make saves. It was battle tonight. It was a playoff atmosphere and a low scoring game.”

After the Hurricanes outshot the Warriors 14-5 in the third, the hosts had a power play chance in OT they were unable to cash in on.

After Thomson and Tetachuk denied the first three rounds of skaters in the shootout, Klavdiev got it done in the fourth round. Moose Jaw’s Denton Mateychuk clanged his chance off the iron to seal the win for Lethbridge.

“It was fun,” said Wood. “Both sides battled hard and both teams managed pucks well. It was just two teams going at it.”

Thomson defeated his home town team 2-1 last week in Moose Jaw.

“He was unreal,” said Wood. “He’s been unreal for us all year. It’s great to see him get the shutout tonight against his hometown team.”

The Hurricanes Thursday night game against the Warriors has been postponed, but the Canes are back at the Enmax Friday night when the Brandon Wheat Kings pay a visit at 7 p.m.

“It’s big,” said Kisio of Tuesday’s win. “Two points for us right now is big in the standings. I think we’ve played some good hockey the last four games. We didn’t always get the result we wanted, but tonight we did.”

NOTES: The Hurricanes gave Tetachuk a video tribute early the first period during a TV timeout. As the video played on the scoreboard screen, the local product raised his goalie stick to salute the applauding crowd of 2,534.

The Hurricanes were without leading scorer Justin Hall, who was out with an injury. The Canes called up 2021 first round draft pick Miguel Marques in time for the game. It was his fourth game with the Hurricanes since getting drafted. Marques has one goal in that time.

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