CANES tie series
The Eastern Conference final is now a best-of-three after the Canes defeated the Broncos to tie series 2-2
Thanks to a little continued home cooking with a not-so-secret ingredient, the Lethbridge Hurricanes made their series with the Swift Current Broncos a best-ofthree affair. The Canes downed the Broncos 5-1 in Game 4 of the teams’ Western Hockey League Eastern Conference final Wednesday night at the Enmax Centre to tie the series at 2-2.
For the second night in a row, the Hurricanes whipped up five goals with a healthy serving of specials teams as the power play went 4-for-10, while the team’s penalty kill snubbed all seven Broncos chances. Game 5 heads back to Swift Current Saturday night.
The win also guarantees Game 6 will be at the Enmax Centre Monday.
Post game, Broncos’ goaltender and former Hurricane Stuart Skinner felt his team’s wins in Games 1 and 2 were looming extra large as the series heads back to Saskatchewan
“I think as a full team we need to be a lot better,” said Skinner, who stopped 23 of 28 shots Wednesday. “To be honest, we should be going home right now. I think Lethbridge should have swept us. The last two games we got at home, I think we got lucky.
“That’s part of hockey, though. Sometimes teams get lucky ... So it’s our job to figure it out or we’re going home.”
The Canes penalty kill got it going Wednesday night.
With Hurricanes defenceman Koletrane Wilson off for tripping, Taylor Ross chipped the puck off the boards at the Canes blueline and broke in for the initial shot. Jadon Joseph was there to put the rebound home for his third of the post season and a 1-0 lead 6:28 in.
The Hurricanes went on a two-man advantage for 1:17 with 7:16 left in the first on interference calls to Andrew Fyten and Tanner Nagel.
After robbing Jake Elmer on a one-time attempt, Skinner came up huge in the five-onthree, sliding across to fleece Canes’ captain Jordy Bellerive on a shot seemingly destined for the back of the net.
But shortly after the first Swift Current infraction expired, the Canes struck for their third power-play goal in the last two games as Logan Barlage made no mistake on a one-time feed from Tate Olson.
Swift Current didn’t head to the intermission empty-handed as Broncos forward Tyler Steenbergen broke in off the left wing and sent a shot past Canes goaltender Logan Flodell to cut the lead to 2-1.
But for the third time in the period, the Hurricanes special teams sounded off when Ross scored on the man advantage with 2:17 left.
Hurricanes defenceman Calen Addison added the last two man-advantage goals, the first with 1:28 left in the second and the final 6:56 into the third for his sixth post-season goal.
“The way we’re playing right now is really good,” said Addison. “We putting pucks behind their D and making them work down low all game. They’re having a hard time getting out of their zone and we’re beating them down pretty good.
“We’re really happy in our room and we’re keeping it really positive. We love the spot we’re in right now.”
Meanwhile, the Broncos were left searching for answers.
“I wish I had an answer for that, I really do,” said Broncos’ head coach Manny Viveiros about Game 4’s outing. “We talked about it last night, we talked about it this morning and we talked about it before the game. We very uncharacteristically melted down tonight. I don’t have an answer for that right now. We’ll analyze it and talk about it later on.”
The Broncos are still without overage forward Glenn Gawdin, who was injured in Game 2 in Swift Current and had 22 points in 16 playoff games, as well as defenceman Artyom Minulin.
But Viveiros wasn’t using those absences as an excuse.
“No, not at all,” he said. “No doubt he’s a big part of our hockey team, no question about it. Same with Artyom Minulin, they’re outstanding players for our hockey club. But that’s an opportunity for other kids to step up in increased ice time. As a group, if we play together, we’ll have an opportunity to give ourselves a chance to win. But we never gave ourselves a chance to win tonight and that was the very disappointing part of it.
“Take no credit away from Lethbridge, they played well. They were disciplined and deserved to win the hockey game. But we can’t make it that much harder on ourselves if we decide to take penalty after penalty and that’s what it was. Lethbridge deserved to win.
“We have to remember how we looked tonight. As a team, I thought we embarrassed ourselves tonight and that’s not who we are and that’s not how we play. We’ll be better. It’s still 2-2. But I’m not happy with the way we presented ourselves on the ice.”
The Hurricanes power play went 6-for-14 over the past two games.
“We moved it around and I thought Ross did a great job and kept Skinner deep,” said Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio. “We got our shots through and I thought we did a good job of moving it around and getting the right options. But the biggest thing was the screen and getting the shots through.”
The Canes outscored the Broncos 10-2 on home ice in Games 3 and 4, but Kisio looked past the scoreboard.
“The score is the score, I think it’s just the way we’re playing,” said Kisio. “We have a lot of guys rolling over the bench right now and doing a good job. We knew it would be a long series and if we could roll our lines more than they do it would put us in a good spot.”
For the second night, former Hurricanes captain and Broncos forward Giorgio Estephan was the recipient of a chorus of boos from the crowd of 4,718 when he got the puck, while Skinner heard his name chanted all night.
“I’m fine with it,” said Skinner. “I like it when fans get on me. I’m kind of even with it, on both sides. I expected a little more respect from the fans, especially after everything me and Giorgio did for them. So it kind of shows you the respect they have for us and how fast things can change. I’m fine with it, though. I don’t know how Giorgio and Nags reacted to it, but I saw it coming a long ways ago.”
And the Broncos goaltender plans to use it for motivation.
“I want to beat the fans now, I’m ready to go.”
Addison noted friendships disappear in the playoffs.
“That’s what we’re trying to do,” said Addison. “We’re trying to get good players off their game. Giorgio, Stu and Nags are my buddies and they played here. But when you step on the ice for playoffs, nobody’s friends. You have to play to win.”
That will continue Saturday night in Swift Current.