Hitmen Defeat Lethbridge 5-3 in Calgary

CALGARY - The Calgary Hitmen opened up a two goal lead in the third period and skated away with a 5-3 victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes Tuesday night.

A great start for the Hurricanes on the road in this one. Less than a minute into the game, Lethbridge opened the scoring when Riley Sheen wrapped the puck in from behind the Hitmen goal, beating Chris Driedger to make it 1-0 Lethbridge. That was Sheen's 17th of the season. The goal was also the start of a wild opening 8 minutes to this game. Right after that Sheen goal the Hitmen tied it up, also on their first shot of the night. Travis Sanheim slid a shot under Stuart Skinner, who was making his first-ever WHL start in goal. That tied things up at 1-1. Shortly after that, the Canes took the lead again, on Riley Sheen's second of game. It was also Sheen's 18th overall this year and less than a minute after that goal, Calgary would tie the game on just their second shot. That was a power play goal from Alex Roach to even things at 2-2. That was four goals on just six shot between the teams in the opening 8 minutes. After the goal scoring fest, both clubs settled down and there was no more offence the rest of the period. The game remained tied at 2-2 after 20 minutes of play. The shots favour Calgary 12-9.

In the second, the Calgary Hitmen started to pick up the pace and eventually took their first lead of the night when Jake Virtanen tipped in a a shot for his 43rd goal of the season. That made it 3-2 Calgary. It stayed that way until the final few minutes, when Calgary extended it's lead thanks to goal from Kenton Helgesen. That made it 4-2 Hitmen. Lethbridge though got that back seconds later when Tyler Wong floated a shot over Driedger and in to cut the Calgary lead to 4-3 after 40 minutes of play. That was Wong's 18th goal of the season. Calgary also made a goaltending change following that goal. Mack Shields came in for the rest of the game. The shots favoured Calgary 31-17.

In the third, the Hurricanes would push hard to try and find the equalizer but Calgary ended up adding some insurance on a power play when Adam Tambellini beat Skinner to increase the Hitmen lead to 5-3. Those two power play goals actually turned out to be the difference because that's the way this game would end. Calgary went 2/2 on the power play and Lethbridge finsihed the night 0/1. The Hitmen out shot the Canes 44-27. The Hurricanes have lost 12 games in a row and see their overall record fall to 12-52-2-3 in 70 games this season. The Canes actually played pretty well in my opinion and Stuart Skinner, in his first full WHL game was solid. He was able to shake off the first two goals he allowed and rebounded well.

Yearly Awards Night

Friday night the Lethbridge Hurricanes will hand out their year-end awards, including Rookie of the Year, Hardest Working and MVP during a pregame ceremony. The team will also recognize their graduating players before taking on the Tigers in the game that is sponsored by Green Prairie. Following the game, we’ll be having a LIVE auction giving fans a chance to win their favorite players’ jersey as we auction off our alternate jersey; the blue airplane logo

Next Up

The Lethbridge Hurricanes enter their final two games of the season this weekend when they close things out against the rival Medicine Hat Tigers. The Canes will host the Tigers Friday (Mar. 14) and then travel to the Hat Saturday (Mar. 15). Game time Friday is 7:00 pm MDT. The pre-game show on CJOC at 6:30. The Saturday game is a 7:30 pm MDT start in Medicine Hat.

Thanks,
Pat