Five-goal first powers Canes

HURRICANES WIN KEY DIVISIONAL SHOWDOWN WITH HITMEN

Afirst-period offensive explosion proved enough to get the Lethbridge Hurricanes back in the win column. It also gave Taber product Brayden Peters an unexpected hometown appearance as the Hurricanes downed the Calgary Hitmen 6-2 in Western Hockey League play Wednesday night at the Enmax Centre.

The Canes struck for five first-period goals — including two goals from Jake Elmer, one shorthanded.

That resulted in the yanking of Hitmen starter Carl Stankowski in favour of Peters as the goaltender for the Lethbridge midget AAA Hurricanes came in with the score 3-1.

The 16-year-old callup surrendered a pair of late firstperiod goals, but settled in the rest of the way to help prevent a blowout.

The early outburst moves the Hurricanes to 28-16-5-5 and allows them to gain some crucial ground in the Central Division with the second-place Medicine Hat Tigers and first-place Edmonton Oil Kings losing Wednesday, but Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio wasn’t impressed with his team’s final 40 minutes after the quick start.

“I thought we had a great first period and I didn’t really like our game much after that,” said Kisio, whose team completes a six-game homestand at 3-1-1-1. “It was a really good job in the first period. We came out and we were skating well and scoring goals and kind of sat back after that.”

Still, the net started filling quickly as Elmer and Jake Leschyshyn kicked off the proceedings for a 2-0 lead 7:05 into the game before Calgary’s Riley Stotts cut the lead in half at the 9:35 mark.

Elmer scored shorthanded for his second of the game and 24th of the season 6:01 later for a 3-1 lead that chased Stankowski in favour of Peters.

Jordy Bellerive and Taylor Ross scored in the final 3:23 to round out the first-period explosion.

“They scored two quick goals right off the start, but after that I felt like I settled down and didn’t have the nerves anymore. It just felt more natural,” said Peters, who is 11-0-0 after getting his first career win last month in Swift Current against the Broncos.

The Hitmen provided the lone goal of the second period.

After a solid penalty kill, the visitors scored right out of the penalty box as Ryder Korczak got the breakaway and beat Canes goalie Carl Tetachuk to make it 5-2 Lethbridge midway through the second.

The Hitmen outshot the Hurricanes 14-9 in the second period.

“We came back strong in the second period had them in their zone quite a bit,” said Peters, who stopped 20 of 23 shots, including a dazzling glove save on Dylan Cozens on a power-play chance in the third period. “It made it easier going through the whole game having our team working and trying to make a comeback.”

The Hurricanes added one more in the third period as Leschyshyn crashed the goal and stuffed home his second of the game at the 6:36 mark.

“We had a great start and I think we got a little bit satisfied,” said Leschyshyn, whose goals give him 33 on the year. “We might’ve let off the gas a little bit. All in all, we’re happy with the win but I think we can play a more full 60 minutes.”

The Hitmen outshot the Hurricanes 38-33. Calgary’s power play was 0-for-3 while the Hurricanes were 0-for-4.

“We’ll have to address that,” said Kisio of the power play. “We’ve worked a lot on it, but we’ll have to work a lot more.”

The Hurricanes are one point back of the Tigers (31-19-3-2), who lost 6-3 to the Saskatoon Blades Wednesday in Medicine Hat and two points back of the 30-17-4-4 Oil Kings, who lost 5-2 to the Wheat Kings in Brandon.

With the homestand complete, the Canes hit the road to Swift Current Friday to take on the Broncos, but are back at the Enmax Centre Saturday at 7 p.m. when the Blades come to town.

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