Canes edge Rebels 5-4 in shootout
Over the past two days, the Lethbridge Hurricanes have added a bunch of faces to the lineup.
On Tuesday night, those new faces helped add two points as the Hurricanes defeated the Red Deer Rebels 5-4 in a shootout in Western Hockey League play at the Enmax Centre.
Former Vancouver Giant Brad Morrison scored the opening two goals on the power play and then scored on one of the Canes’ six chances in the shootout, while Logan Barlage, one of four players acquired from the Swift Current Broncos in Tuesday’s blockbuster deal that sent captain Giorgio Estephan, goaltender Stuart Skinner and forward Tanner Nagel the other way, scored the winning goal in the shootout.
At the other end, new goaltender Logan Flodell made 29 saves and turned aside Reese Johnson in Red Deer’s final shootout attempt for the win that improves Lethbridge to 18-193-0 on the season.
Meanwhile, defenceman Matthew Stanley and forward Owen Blocker, the other players from the Swift Current deal, also made their Hurricanes debuts Tuesday night.
“There have been a lot of moving parts all day,” said Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio. “Our guys came out and played hard. I thought some guys we added had a really big impact. Morrison scored a couple of goals and I thought Barlage was good, Stanley was good and Flodell was good. I could go through them all. They all played a really good game for us tonight.”
Brendan Stafford — with his first goal of the season — and Dylan Cozens also scored in regulation for the Hurricanes.
Reese Johnson scored twice for Red Deer, while Alexander Alexeyev and Mason McCarty also scored.
The Rebels rallied from a 3-1 deficit with three goals — two of them on the power play — in a little over three minutes for a 4-3 lead before Cozens tied it 4-4 with 4:38 left in the second.
After a scoreless third period and overtime, Morrison and Barlage found the back of the net in the shootout and only Kristian Reichel was able to beat Flodell.
Announced attendance at Tuesday night’s game was 2,696.