CANES go for win
The Lethbridge Hurricanes opened their first-round playoff series at home against the Red Deer Rebels last night
The Red Deer Rebels have struck first in their opening-round series with the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
The Rebels rallied from a 20 deficit to top the Hurricanes 4-2 during Game 1 of the team’s best-of-seven Western Hockey League series Saturday night at the Enmax Centre.
With the score tied 2-2 late in the third period, the Rebels were handed a four-minute power play when Hurricanes forward Jordy Bellerive was tagged for a double minor for high sticking on Red Deer’s Michael Spacek and cashed in 12 seconds later when Brandon Hagel buried the game-winner with 1:57 to go.
With goaltender Stuart Skinner on the bench, the Hurricanes applied some dying-seconds pressure, but were unable to tie things back up as Rebel Lane Zablocki added an empty-net insurance marker with four seconds to go for a 1-0 Red Deer series lead as Game 2 gets back on the Enmax Centre ice tonight at 6 p.m.
Hurricanes captain Tyler Wong handed the Canes a 1-0 lead with 6:08 left in the first, shoveling a rebound past Rebels goaltender Riley Lamb and took a 2-0 lead early in the second when Ryan Vandervlis took a feed from Bellerive off the right boards and bulled his way to the net, shoveling a shot past Lamb.
But the Rebels pulled to within one with 1:18 left in the second on a goal from Spacek.
“I felt in the first period we did a good job managing the puck,” said Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio. “I think in the second and third period, especially the second period, we fed into their transition game by not getting it deep and they took advantage of that and came at us. I thought they played a much better second period than we did.”
The Rebels pulled even 1:55 into the third when Cameron Hausinger roofed a sharp angle shot past Skinner to make it 2-2.
Then with a four-minute power play on the board, Hagel put the Rebels up for good and Zablocki added the empty-netter in the dying seconds.
“I thought we settled into the game,” said Rebels head coach Brent Sutter. “In the first period they came at us and they were on their toes jumping and we were on our heels. I thought maybe some of our young guys were a little bit nervous, a little bit uptight, the first time playing in the major junior playoffs. Obviously we have quite a few guys and it’s the first time for them. But after we got our feet moving and got playing, I thought that first goal seemed to relax the guys a bit and I thought, to a group, their game felt better after that.”
The teams go right back at it tonight.
“It’s over with,” said Sutter. “We’ll enjoy the win over the short period to time. We’ll get them to bed and wake up tomorrow morning and it’s a new day and a new game. That’s the beauty about playoffs, you don’t have to look too far ahead to your next game. You have to make sure you stay even-keeled and level-headed and just get ready for your next one.”
“We just have to reset,” added Kisio. “This game is over. We’ll refocus and make the adjustments we have to make and be ready for tomorrow.”
Red Deer outshot Lethbridge 33-27.
Saturday’s announced attendance was 4,118.