Red-hot Hitmen flying up the standings after 4-1 win over Ice

It seems like just yesterday the Calgary Hitmen were lingering in a strange sort of no man’s land in the WHL’S Eastern Conference Wild Card race.

On Feb. 13, the Hitmen were safely in the conference’s first Wild Card spot, but were 10 points back of the Medicine Hat Tigers for third-place in the Central Division. There was little chance of moving up and little chance of moving down.

Or so it seemed. On Thursday, only two weeks from that double-digit deficit, the Hitmen (34-195) beat the Winnipeg Ice (34-23-1) by a 4-1 score line at the Scotiabank Saddledome and, somehow, pulled even with the Tigers on points.

That’s right, the Hitmen made up 10 points in 14 days.

“We’ve come from a ways back to get ourselves back in the conversation,” said Hitmen head coach Steve Hamilton.

The Hitmen have now won seven of their last eight games. Captain Mark Kastelic has scored 10 goals and picked up 16 points in those eight games, while the Hitmen have been getting contributions up-and-down the lineup.

The addition of Kyle Olson, acquired near the trade deadline from the Tri-city Americans has been big, too, and the Hitmen are suddenly looking like a deep team that’s capable of doing some real damage in the playoffs.

“I think that road trip was really a great stepping stone for us, getting 10 points on that trip,” Kastelic said. “At the same time, I don’t think we’re really looking at the standings, we’re just trying to stay on a roll here. Ten games left, we want to continue to improve each game and with that, we should see ourselves continue to rise.”

The Hitmen were always supposed to be a team competing with the best clubs in the WHL’S Eastern Conference, but an almost unbelievable run of bad injuries to key players derailed their plans.

Since the start of January, though, the Hitmen have shown what they’re capable of. Their full lineup features scoring threats on all four lines, and Thursday’s win over the Ice showed what makes them so dangerous.

The Hitmen got two goals from Olson, one from Kastelic and another from Carson Focht, while nine different players collected points.

It was an impressive win in front of 13,172 fans — most school kids in attendance for the TELUS Be Brave End Bullying game — to pull the Hitmen even on points with the Tigers. They’re also only four points back of the Lethbridge Hurricanes, who sit in second place in the Central Division.