U18 AAA Hurricanes pick up two home wins

By Lethbridge Herald on December 19, 2022.

Herald photo by JUSTIN SEWARD Lethbridge Hurricanes Caden Still cuts to the net around Calgary (NW) Flames’ Kyle Federico during U18AAA Alberta Elite Hockey League action at Nicholas Sheran Arena on Saturday.

By Justin Seward

The Lethbridge U18 AAA Hurricanes are feeling pretty good about themselves heading into the holiday break after picking up two home ice victories over teams that are above and below them in the standings.

The fourth  place Canes (12-8-1-1) knocked off the  second place Calgary NW Flames(14-6-1-1) 6-3 on Saturday at Nicholas Sheran Arena.

“You know what, we just kind of played to our game plan and got pucks in behind them, and make it hard on their more skilled guys,” said head coach Sean Gillam.

“We just played a hard kind of not very flashy boring game, and we found a way to get a couple goals our way and hung on their at the end.”

The Canes hung on in the third period as the Flames were relentless and scored a couple of goals.

“We preach on protecting the middle of the ice and you know when we’re in our spots and playing the way we can play, good things happen,” said Gillam.

“You know what, they’re a skilled team over there and they gave us everything we could handle.”

Carter Cunningham led the way with a hat trick while Matthew Sholdice, Alex Westlund and Deegan Kinniburgh scored a goal each in the win.

Lethbridge began the weekend with a 5-2 win over the Okotoks Bow Mark Oilers, who is  fifth place in the standings.

“Again, it’s just us sticking to our game plan,” said Gillam.

“When we stick to our game plan, we give ourselves a chance to play, and we’re hard to play against and that’s how we have success.”

Kinniburgh and Jager Gugyelka had two goals each, and Kayson Christian had a goal to supply the offence against Okotoks.