Hurricanes Down Pats 6-4

The Lethbridge Hurricanes are off to their best WHL start in several seasons after a 6-4 victory Wednesday night over Regina at the ENMAX Centre.

Tyler Wong is blazing hot right now, scoring a hatrick to lead the Canes to their third win in a row. The Canes got things going in this game when Riley Lindgren put home his 3rd goal of the season at the 13:51 mark of the first period to make it 1-0 Lethbridge. The Canes made it 2-0 before the end of the period when Egor Babenko scored his 4th of the year.

The Pats came storming back in the second with a pair of goals to tie the game. Adam Brooks scored a power play goal to cut the Lethbridge lead to 2-1 and then Connor Hobbs evened the score at 2-2 just past the midway point in the period. The Pats eventually took the lead with a few minutes to go in the period when Adam Brooks scored his second of the night to make it 3-2 Regina after 40 minutes.

In third period, the Tyler Wong show took over. The Canes Captain scored three times, his 9th, 10th, and 11th goals of the season to power the Canes to victory. Riley Lindgren added an empty netter for his second of the night and 4th of the season with just over a minute to go and the Hurricanes would come back and win in very exciting fashion. Wong was not the only player to score three times in the game. Adam Brooks added another for the Pats in that third period between the first two goals by Wong.

The victory improves the Canes to 5-2 on the season. They out shot Regina 43-32. They've consistently out shot teams in the first few weeks of the season, something the Canes haven't done in a very long time. Mind you, I think we are all quickly seeing that these are not the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the past 5-6 seasons. This is a very different group. Young, fast, talented, well-coached, and the on-ice leaders and doing exactly what they're supposed to do.

I know we are still early in the season, but the positives so far outweigh the negatives 10 fold. For a team that has struggled to find an identity the last few years, it appears they are working their way to doing just that. They all deserve a load of credit.

Stuart Skinner earned the victory in goal for Lethbridge in the game. Regina went 2 for 5 on the power play and Lethbridge 1/6.

The Hurricanes next action is Saturday (Oct. 17) on the road when they play the Broncos in Swift Current.

Thanks,
Pat