Seattle Beats Lethbridge 6-5 in a Shoot Out

KENT, WA. - The Lethbridge Hurricanes battled back to earn a single point, but fell 6-5 to the Seattle Thunderbirds in a shoot out Sunday night.

Seattle opened the scoring in this game.  Just over 5 minutes into the period, Connor Sanvido's shot was stopped by Ty Rimmer, but the puck had enough momentum and trickled across the goal line giving the T-birds an early 1-0 lead.  That didn't last long however.  Just over a minute later, the Hurricanes would tie things up.  Mike Sofillas drove down the right wing and fired a shot over Brandon Glover, evening up the game at 1-1.  That was Sofillas' 2nd goal of the season.  That scored held up for the rest of the period.  Seattle though out shot the Hurricanes 16-11.

In the second, the Canes would get the offence rolling.  Sam Mckechnie gave the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead on the power play, tipping home his 21st goal of the season. Just 39 seconds later, the Canes would extend their lead when Jamal Watson scored his 11th of the season to make it a 3-1 game in favour of Lethbridge.  Seattle thoough would stage a comeback with a couple quick goals of their own. Connor Honey and Andrew Johnston both scored in a span over 2:30 to tie the game at 3-3.  The game would remained tied heading into the final period.  The Thunderbirds held a 29-22 edge in shots.  Ty Rimmer was very good in goal for the Hurricanes, making several very good saves to keep his team in the game.

In the third, the T-birds would jump ahead again with two quick goals just over 3 minutes apart.  Justin Hickman tipped a point shot, beating a screened Rimmer to make it 4-3 Seattle and then Roberts Lipsbergs scored to give the Thunderbirds a 5-3 lead.  The Hurricanes though would come charging back to tie things up.  Adam Henry came in from the point and scored his 3rd of the season to cut the Seattle lead to 5-4 and then Jaimen Yakubowski scored his team-leading 26th goal of the season late in the period to tie the game at 5-5.  That would eventually be enough to send the game into overtime. The extra period decided nothing.  So for the second time on this 3 game road trip, a shoot out would be needed to determine a winner.  The Canes mis-fired on a three of their shoot out chances while Luke Lockhart was the only one to score for Seattle and the T-birds would skate away with a 6-5 victory.  The Canes were heavilt out shot in this game, 59-36. Lethbridge finished the game 1/3 on the power play and Seattle went 1/6.  The loss drops the Hurricanes to 22-21-1-6 on the season. 

Assistant Coach Chris Chisamore wasn't happy with the number of penalties the Hurricanes took in this game. He said on the CJOC post game show there is no excuse for giving up that many shots to a team like Seattle.  The Canes are banged up, missing 5 players with injury in this game (Albin Blomqvist, Dan Johnston, Reid Duke, Josh Derko, Russ Maxwell).  Joel Topping missed the game because of provincial exams.

MID-SEASON SHAREHOLDERS MEETING

The Lethbridge Hurricanes Shareholder Mid-Season Information meeting is going to be held this Wednesday, January 23rd at 7:00 pm at the Holiday Inn on Mayor Magrath Drive South.

HURRICANES THIS WEEK

Our weekly Hurricanes radio show is back on the air Monday night (Jan. 21). Joining Fred Jack and I will be Hurricanes Head Coach and GM Rich Preston and one of the newest members of the Hurricanes Board of Directors, Nick Polychronopolous.  The program airs at 7:00 pm MST on 94.1 CJOC. If you miss a show, you can log on to the radio station website the following day and download the archived show.

NEXT UP

The Hurricanes have another busy weekend upcoming and in fact, things get tougher not easier.  The Canes will play three games in three nights again, but all against divisional opponents ahead of them in the standings.  On Friday (Jan. 25), Lethbridge will host the Calgary Hitmen at the ENMAX Centre and it's back on the road again after that as they head to Red Deer Saturday (Jan. 26) for a 7:30 pm MST game and then a late afternoon start in Edmonton Sunday (Jan. 27) 4:00 pm MST.

Thanks,
Pat