It all adds up for Canes

It was a night of number crunching — of the good kind — for the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Hosting their second game of a sevengame homestand, the Hurricanes downed the Medicine Hat Tigers 7-2 during Western Hockey League action Sunday night at the Enmax Centre.

Things started adding up nicely for the Canes almost immediately after puck drop as Zane Franklin — skating on the top line with Giorgio Estephan and Dylan Cozens — scored 19 seconds in for his first of three consecutive on the night and his first career hat trick.

A trio of firsts followed as Ryan Vandervlis, Egor Zudilov and Brady Pouteau sniped their first goals of the season on their way to the win that moves the Hurricanes to 5-5. For Zudilov, Sunday’s goal also doubled as his first WHL career point. The Hurricanes return to the Enmax Centre Wednesday night when the Regina Pats come calling.

Not to get lost in the stats parade, Cozens posted a threepoint night on a goal and two assists, while defenceman Calen Addison contributed three helpers.

“That was my first one (hat trick), so that was kind of surreal,” said Franklin, who now has six goals on the season and points in his last four games.

”But they were big goals and that’s all I can wish for. It was definitely Giorgio and Cozens, they were great and buzzing all night. Obviously, you can’t do it without them. There were some lucky bounces and that’s how hockey goes sometimes.” The teams swapped goals in the early-going. Franklin got it started 19 seconds in, but Medicine Hat’s Mark Rassell replied 2:02 later with his team-leading 11th goal of the season.

Franklin handed the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission and completed his hat trick 5:57 into the second for a 3-1 Lethbridge lead, finishing off a goalmouth scramble.

“For a second I thought Coz put it in, but he didn’t,” said Franklin. “So I went to the net, played a little baseball and put it in.”

Cozens extended the lead to 4-1 midway through the second, but Tiger James Hamblin cut that lead in half with

5:54 left in the second.

The trio of first goals of the season wrapped up the scoring as Vandervlis scored on a nice individual effort late in the second before Zudilov and Pouteau tacked on goals in the third.

Drawing an assist on Vandervlis’ goal, Canes goaltender Stuart Skinner turned aside 35 shots.

“I liked our game

tonight,” said Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio. “I liked our effort from start to finish. I thought we had everyone going and it was a really good team game. Obviously, some guys stepped up individually, but I liked our team game.”

Franklin’s totals give him nine points in 10 games this season.

“He’s been working so hard, he was working so

hard last year as well,” said Kisio. “He’s a special player. He can play against the other team’s top guys and shut them down and he can be an offensive guy, which he’s showing now. When he comes out and has an effort like that, it boosts our whole team. You could see our bench had a lot of life from the way he was playing.”