Canes top Rebels in OT thriller
Hurricanes win three games in as many days
It’s only early December, but the Lethbridge Hurricanes and the Red Deer Rebels served up some playoff atmosphere Sunday night.
Hurricanes rookie defenceman Nolan Jones scored 1:50 into overtime for a 5-4 win in Western Hockey League play at the Enmax Centre.
In regulation, Hurricanes forward Taylor Ross netted the hat trick, including the go-ahead goal with 1:17 remaining.
But before the Hurricanes were able to secure their third win in as many nights and a crucial weekend sixpack in the Central Division standings, it was a former Hurricane and newest Rebel who nearly stuck it to his former team.
Brett Davis put the Rebels ahead 3-2 on a beautiful shorthanded effort 11:35 into the third and then, with the Canes up 4-3 and Red Deer goaltender Ethan Anders on the bench, scored the gametying goal to force overtime with 18 seconds left.
It only took 1:50 of the three-on-three overtime for the Canes to end the goalswapping as Jones took a feed from Hurricanes captain Jordy Bellerive and sent a shot past Anders to end the pre-Christmas tilt between the two rivals that didn’t feature a lot of holiday cheer from either side.
“I thought (Hurricanes goaltender Carl) Tetachuk made some good saves and Anders did as well, it was a hard game,” said Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio. “Obviously, we’ve played a lot over the past couple of years and there isn’t a lot of love between either team. It’s just two teams that have played hard, have good clubs and have met a lot in playoffs and that’s what you get, a good hockey game.”
The win improves the Hurricanes to 14-8-3-2 and moves them within three points of the Central Division-leading Rebels (179-2-0).
The Canes held a 2-0 lead after the first period on a pair of goals from Ross, the second on the man advantage.
Chris Douglas got the Rebels on the board 7:12 into the second before Red Deer pulled even five minutes into the third on Zak Smith’s second of the season.
But with the Canes on the power play, it was the Rebels who took their first lead of the game when Davis stripped the puck from Lethbridge’s Jake Elmer, got past defenceman Calen Addison and put a shot behind Tetachuk for a 3-2 lead.
That opened the late floodgates as Lethbridge’s Dylan Cozens tied it with 2:26 to go before Ross completed his hat trick bid with his 16th of the season with a little over a minute to go.
“Elmer made a good play down the wall and I was behind their guys and only had one guy to beat. It was kind of like a screen shot and it went in.”
After Davis tied it late, Jones jumped up into the play early in overtime and was rewarded.
“I saw an opening and thought I would hop in. The puck ended up on my stick, I just shot it and it went in,” said Jones. “After those couple of (Rebels) goals we kept our heads up and just kept working hard. It was a great comeback and a great game.”
Ross added an assist for a four-point night, while Elmer chipped in with three helpers.
Davis had an assist for three points to lead the Rebels.
“I thought early on in the first we did a really good job,” said Kisio. “We were skating and I thought Red Deer had some good push back in the second half of the game and we had some good push back at the same time. We had some lulls tonight, whereas in the last two games we stuck with it the whole night. In three-on-three we had to find a way to grit it out and we did.”
Both teams were shouldering demanding schedules heading into Sunday’s game.
“For us, we were playing three-in-three and Red Deer was playing five-in-six, so they had a lot of hockey, too,” said Kisio. “To get three wins playing three games in 48 hours was pretty impressive.”
Tetachuk stopped 28 shots to improve his record to 5-30-0 this season.
The Hurricanes begin a B.C. and U.S. road trip this week.
They’re in Cranbrook Wednesday to take on the Kootenay Ice before heading to Spokane Friday and TriCity Saturday.
The Hurricanes are back home Dec. 12 when the Kelowna Rockets come to town.
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