Hurricanes Beat Victoria Royals 5-2

A solid outing for the Lethbridge Hurricanes on home ice Wednesday, beating the Victoria Royals 5-2. Egor Babenko and Giorgio Estephan carried the load, each scoring twice en route to the win.

The Hurricanes opened the scoring in this game with Babenko getting his first of two on the night and 4th of the season just 2:43 into the first period to make it 1-0 Canes. It stayed that way till the late stages of the game when Jack Walker evened things at 1-1 through 20 minutes of play.

In the second, Lethbridge jumped ahead by a pair. Giorgio Estephan scoring his first of two in the game and his first of this WHL season to make it 2-1 Canes. A few minutes later, the Hurricanes power play clicked. Brayden Burke scored his first of the year with the man advantage and it was 3-1 Lethbridge after two periods of play.

In the third, Estephan scored his second of the game and second of the season, putting the home side ahead 4-1. Then Egor Babenko got back in on the action with his second of the night and 5th of the year and the Hurricanes were in the driver's seat leading 5-1. The Royals got one more before it was all said and done. Jared Dmytriw scored with just a couple of minutes left in the game and that's as close as Victoria would get in this one. The Hurricanes would win 5-2.

Stuart Skinner had another solid game in goal and the Royals out shot the Hurricanes 38-27. The victory improves the Hurricanes overall record to 5-2-0-1 on the season. That puts them into a tie with Regina for second place in the conference, a couple of points back of first place Swift Current. Again, however it's only 8 games into the season. One stat of note. Lethbridge has one of the best home records in the WHL at 4-1 so far this season.

The Hurricanes continue this home stand on Friday (Oct. 14) when they host Vancouver. The Regina Pats are at the ENAMX Centre on Saturday.

Thanks,
Pat