Hurricanes fall to Oil Kings in a shootout

By Lethbridge Herald on January 9, 2023.

Herald photo by Justin Seward Lethbridge Hurricanes goalie Bryan Thomson jumps on a loose puck before Edmonton Oil Kings forward Rhett Melnyk could find it during Western Hockey League action at the Enmax Centre on Saturday.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Luca Hauf and Gavin Hodnett scored in the shootout to help propel the Edmonton Oil Kings over the Lethbridge Hurricanes 3-2 at the Enmax Centre on Saturday.

Both Noah Chadwick and Tyson Zimmer failed to convert in the shootout for the Hurricanes.

“I mean we were gripping our sticks pretty tight tonight,” said Matt Anholt, Lethbridge Hurricanes assistant coach.

“I really don’t know why. (There were) lots of opportunities to pop goals and lots of opportunities to make plays and they bounced off our stick a lot tonight.”

Hodnett notched his seventh of the season to open the scoring at 10:56 of the first period from Parker Alcos and Rilen Kovacevic.

The Canes were finally able to solve Oil Kings goalie Logan Cunningham at the 4:30 mark of the final period to tie the game, as newly acquired Blake Swetlikoff finished off a 2-on-1 with Cole Shepard.

“It did jolt us a little bit but it just wasn’t enough to get it done tonight,” said Swetlikoff.

Logan Wormald pulled the Canes ahead 2-1 with his 15th goal of the season at 12:39 of the third period on the powerplay from Jett Jones and Tyson Zimmer.

Lethbridge’s lead didn’t last long as Edmonton’s  Cole Miller scored his sixth of the season at the 17- minute mark to tie the game 2-2 and send the game to overtime.

“Yeah, I mean the third period was excellent,” said Anholt.

“We were all over them. We had a lot of looks, had a lot of shots. We just can’t give up that tying goal.”

Anholt said you can’t give up points at any given time when you’re in a playoff chase.

“Every point (is) so important,” said Anholt.

“And that point that we just lost is going to be one that we probably remember at the end of the year.”

Edmonton took two of three meetings at the Enmax Centre this season.

“I think we just  have a team that sometimes struggles to score,” said Anholt.

“You know a lot of teams that are below us in the standings seem to score lots of goals against that Edmonton team and for whatever reason we just struggle to.”

Swetlikoff thought right from the get-go the Hurricanes started off good.

“We had a lot of good chances,” he said.

“I think it kind of came down to making those chances count and then a couple break downs that we just can’t really let happen. And you know what, Edmonton, credit to them, they capitalized on their chances.”

 The Hurricanes outshot the Oil Kings 47-31.

The Hurricanes will continue the homestand with a game against the Swift Current Broncos on Wednesday night.