Canes’ streak snapped

THUNDERBIRDS SCORE FOUR IN SECOND PERIOD IN 7-4 VICTORY

Aspooky second period halted the Lethbridge Hurricanes three-game winning streak. The Hurricanes were downed 7-4 by the Seattle Thunderbirds during Western Hockey League play Sunday night at the Enmax Centre.

With Halloween right around the corner, the Thunderbirds scared up four unanswered goals in the second period to frighten away a 2-1 deficit after the first period to hand the Hurricanes a loss that puts them at 7-6, spoiling Hurricanes goaltender Reece Klassen’s WHL debut.

“I don’t think the normal effort level was there and how we normally come out for a period,” said Hurricanes assistant coach Jeff Hansen. “When you come out and you’re sleeping like that, you can look up at the scoreboard and be in trouble pretty quick sometimes. We knew they were going to come hard. It’s the kind of brand of hockey they play. Even though they’re on their third game in three nights they played with more effort than us and they played fresher than us.”

The Hurricanes took a 1-0 lead 1:33 into the game as assistant captain Ryan Vandervlis upped his goalscoring streak to four games with his fourth of the season.

The Thunderbirds evened it 1:59 later as Nolan Volcan scored.

Lethbridge got the lead back on a little net crashing as Josh Tarzwell swatted home a loose puck that skidded behind Seattle goaltender Liam Hughes for his first of the season and a 2-1 lead 9:24 into the first.

But it didn’t take the Thunderbirds long to take off in the second.

The Thunderbirds came out with pressure to start the second and tied it up 1:07 in when Donavan Neuls scored off an odd-man rush to make it 2-2.

Seattle took their first lead of the game 1:29 later on a goal from Sami Moilanen.

The Thunderbirds doubled their lead with 7:23 left in the second when Zack Andrusiak scored off the right wing for a 4-2 lead.

Andrusiak then added his second of the game on the power play with 3:56 left in the second for a 5-2 Seattle lead.

The Thunderbirds kept coming in the third and went up 6-2 on the power play with Jadon Joseph off for checking from behind as Tuner Ottenbreit scored off a failed clearing attempt 6:24 into the third.

The Canes cut the lead in half on a man advantage of their own as Giorgio Estephan teed up his fifth of the season off the left wing to make it 6-3 Seattle midway through the third.

Vandervlis added his second of the game with 1:51 left, but Andrusiak completed his hat trick bid in the final minute to round out the scoring.

“It was kind of unstructured,” said Estephan. “It seemed really scrambly. Any time we got the puck in the neutral zone there was a turnover and any time they got a puck in the neutral zone there was a turnover and they were coming in on us with a lot of speed and we didn’t absorb it well at times. Compared to the last couple of games where we were solid defensively and worked out from there, I think today it showed we were struggling in our Dzone and took a lot of penalties, too. So it definitely killed us.”

Klassen made 25 saves in the loss.

“I think he made some saves, for sure,” said Hansen. “But for the first game in the league, you’re bound to have a little bit of rust and be a bit nervous. But he’s going to be fine. He’s going to be there when we need to give Stuart (Skinner) a break. He needs a chance to win us a game and that’s what he’s going to do.”

The Thunderbirds power play went 2-for-3, while the Canes were 1-for-3.

The Hurricanes play Game 6 of their sevengame home stand Wednesday night when the Saskatoon Blades visit the Enmax Centre at 7 p.m.