Hurricanes feeling good heading into holiday break

By Lethbridge Herald on December 16, 2024.

Lethbridge Hurricanes net minder Jackson Unger squares up to make a butterfly save in the first period of a 4-1 win Sunday evening at the VisitLethbridge.comArena over the Medicine Hat Tigers. Southern Alberta Newspapers photo by James Tubb

James Tubb – SOUTHERN ALBERTA NEWSPAPERS – jtubb@medicinehatnews.com

The Lethbridge Hurricanes enter the holiday break on a high note.

The Hurricanes finished off a three-in-three weekend with a pair of 4-1 wins at home, beating the Red Deer Rebels on Friday and the Medicine Hat Tigers on Sunday. The second win of the weekend was a bounce-back effort, overcoming a 3-2 loss at Medicine Hat’s Co-op Place on Saturday.

Associate coach and assistant general manager Matt Anholt liked how the Hurricanes handled the distractions of the final game before the holidays and were able to end the first half on a win.

“It’s a hard game to win,” Anholt said. “During my time in the league, it’s always a real challenging game as a lot of guys just have their minds elsewhere. When it boils down to it, that game could have went either way really. If a couple bounces didn’t go our way, or our goalie wasn’t excellent.

“But good by our guys to stick to it and when it’s all said done, the special teams is probably a little bit of a difference.”

Jackson Unger, a quickly forgotten part of the trade from Moose Jaw that brought Brayden Yager to Lethbridge, earned the WHL’s goalie of the week with his play.

He picked up both weekend wins, also nabbing a 2-1 victory on Dec. 11 in a 2-1 win over the Saskatoon Blades, for a 3-0 record in the week and a dazzling 1.00 goals against average and .950 save percentage.

He’s undefeated since being acquired on Dec. 2., running a 5-0 record, a .922 SV% and a 1.80 GAA in the red and blue.

Koen Cleaver started Saturday’s loss, with 21 saves. Lethbridge trailed 2-0 after 40 minutes, with Hayden Pakkala and Noah Chadwick scoring a pair of third-period power play markers to make the game interesting. 

Lethbridge had four different goal scorers Sunday, with Chadwick and Will Sharpe finding the back of the net in the first period. Shane Smith scored his first against his former club, tickling twine in the middle frame and Kooper Gizowski capped off the win with a goal in the third period.

For Smith, who tallied his fifth of the season with the insurance marker, he says the goal brings some confidence for himself and the win brings momentum they’ll look to carry.

“A bit of a lucky goal, but one of those has to win eventually,” Smith said. “It’s been a been a while, but it was good to see that one go in and just try to continue to work at it every day, get better and start creating more offence as much as I can.

“When we come back here on the 26th we can look back and be proud of our effort this weekend. A three-in-three is obviously tough to leave it off, but the team did a great job and I’m looking forward to a great second half.”

The Hurricanes finish the unofficial first half of the season with a 17-11-1-1 record, good for second in the central division while still four games away from the halfway point of the 2024-25 season. They trail the first-place Tigers (19-14-1) by three points, with four games in hand.

Lethbridge will look to continue their path of success in the second half and even more so, continue the momentum at home. The VisitLethbridge.comArena has been a contradicting nightmare for away teams, as the Hurricanes hold a 13-2-1 record on home ice.

“It’s such an amazing arena to play in,” Smith said. “The fans are great, they’re always electric and our organization does a great job of promoting games and putting on a show for the fans and the players too. We feed off the energy in the room and we want to take pride in our game, win just makes it a lot more special for our fans.”

Hurricanes players and staff will return home to see family and friends for the break ahead of a second-half push toward the WHL playoffs. 

They’re off until Dec. 27 when they host the Calgary Hitmen in the first of three games in four nights. The Hurricanes will head to Medicine Hat on Dec. 28 before visiting Red Deer’s Peavy Mart Centrium to battle with the Rebels. 

Anholt says they head into the holidays with a good feeling, one that could lead them to making more moves ahead of the Jan. 9 trade deadline.

“It’s good for our guys and our group to go in with a good feeling,” Anholt said. “We obviously made a big trade over the last couple weeks and you never know, management might feel like if this team deserves another add or two. So good on our guys to have a good feeling going in the break so we can maybe make another move before the deadline happens.”