Kootenay ICE Defeat Lethbridge 6-3

LETHBRIDGE - Three goals in a span of just 1:05 in the second period would propel the Kootenay ICE to a 6-1 victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes last night at the ENMAX Centre.

The Hurricanes opened the scoring in this one, when Mitch Maxwell scored his second goal of the season banking a shot off the goal post and in past Kootenay's Nathan Lieuwen to give Lethbridge a 1-0 lead. The ICE would come charging back to eventually take the lead before the end of the period. First, Drew Czerwonka banked in a shot to tie the game 1-1 and then with just 14 second left in the opening period, James Martin beat beat Brandon Anderson on the power play to give Kootenay a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes. The ICE out shot the Canes' 13-8 in that period.

In the second, the Kootenay ICE would turn things up a few notches. The ICE managed three goals in a span of just 1:05 to take a commanding 5-1 lead. Max Reinhart, Christian Magnus, and Drew Czerwonka all managed to score for Kootenay to blow the game wide open for the visitors. The 4th ICE goal chased Hurricanes starting goaltender Brandon Anderson. Dylan Tait came in at the 5:26 mark and the first shot he faced beat him. That was Czerwonka's second of the night. Kootenay heavily out shot Lethbridge in the second period 19-6 for a two period shot total of 32-14.

In the third, Kootenay would add one more to go up 6-1. Jesse Ismond scored for Kootenay and that would ice it for the ICE. The Hurricanes though would get a few of those goals back before the end of the game. Phil Tot and Graham Hood scored for Lethbridge, but that would be as close as the Canes' would get on this night. Make the final: Kootenay 6 and Lethbridge 3. The power play chances finished up 1/4 for Kootenay and the Hurricanes were 0/2. The Canes' haven't scored a power play goal in their last 26 chances. The final shots on goal though really told the story in this game. The Kootenay ICE held the edge 46-22. The loss drops the Hurricanes overall record to 3-3-0-1 in seven games this season.

Overall, the Hurricanes struggled offensively until the third period, but to be honest, to Kootenay's credit the ICE certainly didn't give Lethbridge much to work with in this game. Despite the score, Kootenay also hit three goal posts in this game. Kootenay played a very good game from start to finish, but that second period is where they took control of this one. Hurricanes Associate Coach Matt Kabayama said on the post game show last night that Lethbridge was unable to win the battles and simply got outworked by the ICE in this game.

Injury Update

The Hurricanes are going to be without their leading scorer for a while. Austin Fyten will likely be out four weeks after fracturing his foot during the Friday night game against Prince George. Rich Preston told our pre-game show last night that it's unfortunate for both the team and Fyten, who is off to the best start of his WHL career with six goals two assists. This injury to Fyten will also be an opportunity for a few other players to step up and try and fill that void. Brody Sutter is still sidelined with a shoulder injury and should be back next weekend while Merk Reners will be out another week or so with a knee injury. Neither of those two players have seen any action this season.

Next Up

The Hurricanes will get a few days to celebrate Thanksgiving before getting back to business next week Lethbridge will host Regina on Friday and Saskatoon will pay a visit next Saturday. Both games are 7:00 pm starts on 94.1 CJOC. Happy Thanskgiving! We will have a Hurricanes This Week talk show Monday night on CJOC. The show starts at 6pm (MDT). Huricanes forwad Cam Braes will be on the show along with Regina Pats radio voice Dan Plaster. There will be no show October 18th. That is civic election day in Alberta and CJOC will have LIVE two hour election coverage that night hosted by myself and Veryl Todd, so because of that there will be no talk show on the 18th.

Thanks,

Pat