Hurricanes beat Tigers in preseason opener

By Lethbridge Herald on September 9, 2022.

Herald photo by JUSTIN SEWARD New Lethbridge Hurricane, Cole Carrier, tries to drive wide around Medicine Hat Tigers defenceman Matt Paranych during preseason action on Friday night at the Enmax Centre.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Hurricanes opened the preseason on the right foot as they defeated the Medicine Hat Tigers 7-3 on Friday night at the Enmax Centre.

“I thought we played hard,” said Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio.

“I thought a lot of guys came out and we had some young guys in the line-up tonight. And for the first game, kind of a first experience in the jersey, (they) did a lot of good things. You know a lot of things to improve upon and there’s a lot of areas of our game that have to get a lot better. Hey, first game of the year, we’re happy with it.”

Kisio thought there were a lot of players that had a good game on the night.

“I thought Zandee and (Hayden Smith) Smitty (and) (Dustin) Renas, their line played really strong up front. You know the backend, I thought McCutcheon had a hell of a game and just hey, there’s some young guys in there that did a really good job showing how they can play.”

It was the Canes that got on the board first as third-year defenceman Logan McCutcheon opened the scoring just 6:31 into the contest with an unassisted marker.

Lethbridge doubled their lead just 2:38 later as Tristan Zandee put one home and the assists going to Chase Pauls and Hayden Smith.

The Tigers got a goal back just 45 seconds later as Dallon Melin beat Canes goalkeeper Koen Cleaver.

Medicine Hat scored just 1:37 in the second period on a two-man advantage as Oskari Kuntonen found the puck in a crease scramble and put in the back of the net to tie the game at two.

The Hurricanes pulled ahead 3-2 at 11:09  as this year’s 11th overall pick,  defenceman Will Sharpe , came in from the blue line and capitalized into the wide-open net. Smith and Zandee drew the assists.

“Yeah, you know it was a great feeling,” said Sharpe.

“I didn’t really have anything going through my head when I shot that puck. I just closed my eyes and I just shot it. I saw it go in the net (and) just an unbelievable feeling.”

Sharpe admitted he was nervous at the start but was able quickly to settle down.

“I just found my game and played my game,” he said.

He feels he has to work on harder plays in the defensive zone, being the right spots and battling more in the corners.

The Canes doubled their lead to 4-2  at 16:25 of the second  as Pauls wired one off the post and in from Brayden Edwards and Logan Wormald.

Melin got his second of the night at 4:53 of third to bring Medicine Hat to within a goal of the Hurricanes.

Zandee got Lethbridge’s two goal lead back as he skated down the left wing and beat Tigers goalie James Venne low blocker slide to make it 5-3 at 10:24 of the third.

Wormald doubled the Canes lead to 6-3 as he finished off a nice passing play with Miguel Marques at 14:01 of the third. Noah Chadwick got the other assist.

Wormald scored his second of the night at 15:54 from Edwards and Nolan Bentham to end the scoring.

“Our team’s looking good too,” said Wormald

 We’ve got a lot of good prospects in the system. So I’m excited to play with these new guys.”

Wormald said the pace is fast and the boys work well together.         

The two teams will play again tonight in Medicine Hat.