Hurricanes defeat Cougars in overtime

By Lethbridge Herald on January 13, 2023.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward- Lethbridge Hurricanes Blake Swetlikoff takes the Prince George Cougars' Bauer Dumanski out of the play with a hit during Western Hockey League action at the Enmax Centre on Friday night.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Tyson Laventure scored 17 seconds into overtime to lift the Lethbridge Hurricanes to a 4-3 win over the Prince George Cougars on Friday night at the Enmax Centre.

“It was a hard fought game,” said Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio.

“Prince George is a very well coached team.  (Coach Mark) Lamb does a great job there. They’re real structured, they transition fast. And I thought our neutral zone was key tonight. We did a good job of turning over some pucks and I thought especially in the first two periods, we were  really heavy down low and created a lot of offence, and as we expected, Prince George pushed hard in the third.”

Kisio thought the Cougars came at the Hurricanes hard.

“I think they had some opportunities and I thought Tommy (Bryan Thomson) stood tall in net and I think he played a real good hockey game for us,” said Kisio.

Prince George captain Ethan Samson opened the scoring as his wrist shot from the point found its way past Thomson at 6:10 of the first period.

Hudson Thornton and Carlin Dezainde assisted on Samson’s marker.

The Canes’s Miguel Marques one timed a Blake Swetlikoff pass past Cougars goalie and Coaldale native Ty Young to tie the game 1-1 at 10:42 of the first period.

Tristan Zandee would make the score 2-1 for the Canes as he slid the puck five hole on Young from Swetlikoff and Anton Astashevich for his sixth of the season at 5:06 of the second period.

Former Cane Chase Wheatcroft notched his 24th goal  of  the season at 9:39 of the second period on the powerplay to tie the game at two.

Koehn Ziemmer and Riley Heidt had the assists on Wheatcroft’s marker.

Astashevich ripped it home glove side on Young to give Lethbridge a 3-2 lead at 10:48 of the second period.

Swetlikoff and Zandee drew the assists on Astashevich’s fourth goal of the season.

Heidt one timed a Ziemmer pass into a wide open net to tie the game 3-3 at 7:18 of the third period. Zac Funk also assisted on Heidt’s 19the goal of the season.

Zandee had two points on the night ,and thought the key for the Canes was to keep playing hard, getting back to the way the team plays  — which was playing a simple game and hard to play against in the neutral and defensive zones.

“I’m mean we’re one of the biggest teams in the league, a pretty old team as well,” said Zandee.

“So I think when we get down to it, we’re ready for that type of battle and it’s going to suit us well in playoffs too.”

Swetlikoff assisted on the overtime winner to give him four assists on the night.

The Hurricanes improved to 23-15-0-2 with the win and will now have a quick turnaround ,as the Red Deer Rebels come to town for a battle tonight at 7 p.m.

The home game against the Rebels will conclude the five-game homestand before the team sets out on a four-game road trip beginning Sunday in Calgary (4 p.m.)

It was earlier on Friday that the Midterm Rankings by the NHL Scouting Services were released  and  three Hurricanes made the lists.

Goalie Harrison Meneghin was ranked 27th among North American goalies  and Logan Wormald at 160th and Noah Chadwick was ranked at 147th among North American skaters.