Hurricanes Lose 4-3 to Broncos in Overtime

A span of 2:30 minutes in the third period changed the entire game as the Swift Current Broncos erased a 3-0 deficit and came charging back to stun the Lethbridge Hurricanes 4-3 in overtime Friday night at the ENMAX Centre.

They were playing, what I though twas one of their best, most physical hockey games of the season until things changed dramatically in the final frame.

Lethbridge opened the scoring in this game when Taylor Cooper scored his 4th goal of the season at the 2:40 mark of the first period to give the Canes a 1-0 lead. A couple of minutes later the Hurricanes struck again. Nikita Milokhin cashed in a rebound off a nice play from Tyler Wong for his first-ever WHL goal, giving Lethbridge a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes of play.

In the second, a little more Russian love as Pavel Skumatov scored for the first time since opening night back in September. He notched his 3rd goal of the season to give the Canes what looked to be a comfortable 3-0 lead through two periods of play.

In the third though things changed and changed fast. Swift Current, lead by their Captain Colby Cave came charging back with three goals, including two in just 7 seconds. Tyler Steenbergen got the Broncos on the board at the 5:43 mark of the third period to cut the Hurricanes lead to 3-1. Just 7 seconds after that, the Colby Cave show took over. He scored his first of three on the night to make it a 3-2 game. 2:11 later it was Cave again, scoring his second of the night to tie the game at 3-3. That goal really changed the momentum in this game as the Broncos continued to turn up the heat.

That goal sent the game into overtime. The Broncos carried the play into the extra period when Colby Cave ended things on his hatrick goal, bating Zac Robidoux 3:10 into overtime to comlplete the comeback and win the game 4-3. After a lackluster first period, Swift Current really came to life in this game. They out shot the Hurricanes 46-30 when it was all said and done. The Broncos were 0/4 on the power play and Lethbridge 0/1.

The was the Hurricanes 3rd overtime loss in a row and dropped their overall record to 5-9-3-1 at the quarterway point in this WHL season. At this same 18 game mark last season, the Canes had a record of 2-13-1-2.

It was nice to see the two Russians get in on the scoring. For two highly-touted imports, neither has produced much this season and that's disappointing. Skumatov has only play 9 games and Milekhin, who was the 3rd overall pick in the CHL Import Draft has only been in 10 games this season. The Hurricanes need a lot more production from these two guys. Combined they have a total of 8 points. That's not at all good enough, especially for Milekhin.

The Hurricanes next action is at home Saturday (Nov. 8) when they host the defending WHL champs, the Edmonton Oil Kings at the ENMAX Centre.

Thanks,
Pat