CANES host Ice
ESTEPHAN SCORES THREE AS CANES ROLL TO 8-1 WIN
Hurricanes looked to snap two-game losing streak against the Kootenay Ice last night —
The Tyler Wong 50-goal watch remains in progress and will continue Friday night against Medicine Hat. The Hurricanes scored a convincing 8-1 win over the Kootenay Ice during Western Hockey League action Wednesday night at the Enmax Centre.
But on a night where the Canes overage captain was unable to find the back of the net and would hold at 49 goals on the season, Wong got ample support from his teammates as assistant captain Giorgio Estephan posted the hat trick to up his goal total to 35 on the season as Lethbridge snapped a two-game losing skid to improve to 44-19-4-3 with two regular season games left on the slate.
The half-century goal mark eluded Wong despite a few long looks from his teammates in the late going to try and set him up, but Wong didn’t come away empty-handed as the team held its annual pre-game awards ceremony and Wong took home the Harry Ingarfield Memorial Award for Most Valuable Player among a host of other hardware.
“It’s a pretty big honour,” said Wong, who walked away with five awards. “I think it’s just been a fun year to be a part of. It’s a really special team we have here and I feel incredibly blessed and a little humbled to be recognized for all those awards.”
The Hurricanes went on the power play early and Estephan turned that into a 1-0 lead six seconds into the power play.
Lethbridge added three more in the final 10 minutes of the first on goals from Alec Baer, Jordy Bellerive and Calen Addison, who was also one of the award winners Wednesday night as the first-year defenceman was awarded with the Carl Trentini Memorial Award for Rookie of the Year.
Estephan added his second, and Egor Babenko also scored in the second period for a 6-0 lead after 40 minutes.
After former Hurricane Colton Kroeker spoiled Hurricanes goaltender Stuart Skinner’s shutout bid five minutes into the third, Ryan Vandervlis notched his seventh of the season before Estephan completed his hat trick bid to round out the scoring.
With time winding down and the crowd of 3,617 buzzing for Wong’s 50th snipe, the captain was fed numerous times by linemates clearly looking for him, but was unable to drain the marker.
“It just shows the type of unselfish players we have on our team,” said Wong. “They were rooting for me and I was trying pretty hard. I took a lot of shots tonight, but that’s the way it goes. I think our team played awesome. A lot of guys contributed and that’s what we’re going to need in the playoffs. Our top lines aren’t going to score every game and I think we need guys like Vandervlis, Bowen and Bellerive and guys like that that are putting up a lot of points. It’s going to be huge in the stretch for us.”
The Hurricanes first-round opponent has been determined as the team gets ready to face the Red Deer Rebels in the first round of playoffs starting with Games 1 and 2 March 25 and 26 at the Enmax Centre.
— The Canadian Hockey League announced the Week 25 edition of the CHL Top 10 rankings on Wednesday.
The Regina Pats (49-12-7-1) remain the highest-ranked WHL team, moving from third to second in the latest edition
NOTES
of the weekly list.
The Pats clinched the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy as WHL Regular Season Champions Tuesday night.