Hurricanes thump Blades in busy third period
By Lethbridge Herald on April 6, 2022.
Herald Photo by Justin Seward Lethbridge HurricanesÕ Corson Hopwo tries to drive to the net as the Saskatoon BladesÕ Josh Paulhaus and Ryan Nolan check him in front of Nolan Maier during first period action at the Enmax Centre on Wednesday night.The Lethbridge Hurricanes found another gear in the third period as they defeated the Saskatoon Blades 6-1 at the Enmax Centre on Wednesday night.
All of the scoring game in the third period as Hurricanes captain Joe Arntsen roofed his sixth of the season just 1:14 into the third and it less than a minute later the Canes made it 2-0 on Logan McCutcheon’s fourth of the season.
“Yeah, it was huge,” said Arntsen, on seeing his goal go in to open the scoring.
“We had some chances in the first two periods and we couldn’t put one in. So when that first one went in, it was a big relief. You know the boys just followed up with more after. So it was a big win.”
The Hurricanes padded their lead as Logan Wormald scored his 12th of the season at 9:40 to make it 3-0.
Saskatoon’s Jordan Keller scored his first Western Hockey League at 10:51 of the final frame to break Bryan Thomson’s shutout bid.
Arntsen wired in his second of the game at 13:42 of the third to make it 4-1.
Chase Pauls put the game to bed with an empty netter at 15:31 to make it 5-1 Hurricanes and just for good measures Brayden Edwards made the game 6-1 at 19:02.
Arntsen followed up his two-goal performance with a fight against the Blades’ Vaughn Watterodt near the end of the contest.
“The crowd had my back there, so it was a fun and it was a good way to end off my game,” said Arntsen.
Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio thought it was it huge when he saw Arntsen’s goal go in.
“He’s a got a big shot and obviously the first goal was huge for us and kind of got the momentum going,” said Kisio.
“Like I said, I thought we had a lot of chances, but we needed to get that first one and we did.”
Kisio said they just kept funnelling pucks.
“The chances we were getting, if you keep getting those, we move into the third (and) at some point we are going to get rewarded for that and we had some nice goals,” he said.
“But our defence found some lanes, pound some pucks, and they got in.”
Both team came out and played a back-and forth first period and not giving each other much room out on the ice.
The Hurricanes managed 14 shots on net, but could not solve Blades’ goaltender Nolan Maier— who was fresh off of getting his WHL record-setting 120th win the night before with a 4-0 win in Medicine Hat.
Lethbridge kept the Blades at bay in the opening 20 minutes as the visitors only managed six shots on Canes goalie Bryan Thomson
Both teams went into the first intermission 0-0.
The teams came out in the middle frame with more tight checking and both goalies stayed sharp to keep the game scoreless after two before the floodgates opened in the third period.
Lethbridge went 0-for-1 on the powerplay and the Blades went 0-for-3.
Final shots were 37-24 for Lethbridge.
The Hurricanes record sits at 30-30-3-1.
Next up for the Hurricanes is a road game in Red Deer on Friday night at 7 p.m.
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