Hurricanes earn point versus Rebels

By Lethbridge Herald on January 16, 2023.

Herald photo by Justin Seward Lethbridge Hurricanes goaltender Harrison Meneghin battles to keep the rebound in front of him as the Red Deer Rebels’ Frantisek Formanek tries to whack at the puck on the door step during Western Hockey League action at the Enmax Centre on Saturday night.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Hunter Mayo scored with 5.9 seconds left in overtime to lift the Red Deer Rebels over the Lethbridge Hurricanes by a score of 2-1 on Saturday night at the Enmax Centre.

The game was hard-hitting, fast paced and had a playoff-like atmosphere as both the teams and the crowd were into it all game long.

“A fun game,” said Ryan Aasman, Hurricanes assistant coach.

“A really good crowd, loud building, good hockey game —  a man’s game today. You know we had to be competitive to play in that one today, it was really physical, both teams shared chances back and forth (and) played a really solid system game as well. It was a lot of fun to be a part of.”

Aasman thought up and down the line up the effort was there from the players.

“Everybody contributed and give some sort of a  value,” he said.

“I really liked how sound we were structurally. We were hard to play against,  (the) for check was really good, I thought we did a really good job in the offensive zone, again just releasing pucks when we were in trouble and finding ways to get the puck to the point and have traffic at the net , pucks were laying there and we had some opportunities. But I thought we did a good job off the rush, we found ways to make some chances off of our entries and looked dangerous at times.”

It was for the third consecutive game that the Hurricanes gave up the first goal, as the Rebels opened the scoring 2:13 into the second period,  courtesy of Kalen Lind’s 12th of the season.

Miguel Marques pounced on a Chase Pauls rebound  to tie the game for Lethbridge at 12:03 of the second with his fifth of the season.

Tristen Doyle drew the other assist on Marques goal.

“We played a hell of a game,” said Marques.

“And obviously it went to overtime ,three on three, and stuff happens. But yeah we were heavy, they were heavy. It’s a divisional game, so we know what we have to do and we came out and played the way we did and stuff happens.”

 Harrison Meneghin was sensational in net again on the night, as he saved 37-of-39 Rebel Shots.

“Yeah I felt that was the Harry we’ve seen all year again,” said Aasman.

“I think the last couple of starts (he has) had, he was not used to the grind, you know he was getting tired. I think he did a really good job this week preparing himself to have some quality starts, that’s what he did today. Usually when the quality of shooters gets tougher, he usually rises. He’s got such a high compete level, he’s so athletic, he’s a student of the game (and) he’s constantly learning to try and get better. He’s learning how to be an everyday goaltender here and he shows up and he finds ways to keep us in every hockey game that’s for sure.”

The Hurricanes finished the five-game homestand with a 2-1-1-1 record.

“Yeah, really good (in) our last three games,” said Aasman.

“We’ve had a really good week. We prepared ourselves to get ready to go into a really tough stretch of games like we’re coming still at the tail end of a three (games)in three (nights) and now we go to the States for three in four and with a lot of travel. I thought we did a good job this week really  getting ready for that and getting prepared to battle. I feel like we shook off the Christmas rust and we’re back to our form again, playing the way we like to play, and we’re getting solid efforts from everybody.”

The Hurricanes began a four-game road trip on Sunday in Calgary before head to the United States to face Everett Wednesday (8 p.m.), Seattle on Friday (8 p.m.) and conclude in Portland on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Seattle is the No. 1 ranked team in the WHL and Portland is not far behind in fifth place.

“You don’t have a lot of time to think,” said Aasman.

 “You just have to go out and play. You know sometimes it’s easier to play in those types of scenarios because you just kind of flow and you just get in a groove. That’s what we’ll do, we’ll get in a groove, and we know we just  have to stick to our identity and play our structure game that gives us an edge every single night.”

The Hurricanes (24-15-1-2) started off the road trip with a 4-1 win in Calgary.

Cole Shepard had a pair of goals, Tyson Laventure and Logan Wormald added a goal each in the win.

Lethbridge’s next home game is on Jan. 27 versus the Winnipeg Ice.