Hitmen ground high-flying Rockets
Bensmiller’s goal late in second period stands up as game winner
The Calgary Hitmen faced a big test on Sunday and passed with flying colours.
Layne Bensmiller’s first Western Hockey League goal late in the second period stood up as the game winner as the Hitmen downed the Kelowna Rockets 4-1 in front of an announced crowd of 9,549 fans at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
“Guys are fired up,” said Bensmiller in regard to beating the Rockets, the No. 2-ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League. “It’s nice to beat the best team in the WHL right now ... and we’re streaking too, so that’s always nice.”
Beck Malenstyn, Adam Tambellini and Chase Lang also scored for the Hitmen (19-11-3), who have reeled off five-straight wins.
Goalie Mack Shields stopped 17 of 18 shots he faced to record his 15th win of the season. He also chipped in with an assist (his fifth of the season to break his own franchise record for assists in a season by a goalie) on Bensmiller’s marker.
“We came out at the start and dictated the way we wanted to play and got some timely scoring and I thought Mack was obviously very good as well,” said Hitmen coach Mark French, who was pleased to see his players prove that they can compete against a nationallyranked team.
“It was a big challenge. I think our guys took it that way.”
Dillon Dube scored the lone goal of the game for the Rockets (26-53), who had won three in a row and four of their past five.
Tambellini has now scored in five-straight games, while he’s also riding a career-best six-game point streak.
“Everyone’s starting to really find their role and we’re playing really good defence down the stretch here in the last couple games,” said Tambellini, who’s leading the Hitmen in scoring with 19 goals and 17 assists in 32 games. “That’s leading to our transition game which has been really impressive lately and it’s leading to more offence.”
After a scoreless first period, Malenstyn opened the scoring at 6:13 of the second when he tipped Bean’s point shot past Kelowna goalie Jackson Whistle, who finished with 27 saves in a losing cause.
“It was going wide and it was a good tip by him,” said Bean, who has yet to record his first WHL goal despite the fact that he’s put up 11 assists in his past seven games.
The goal was initially credited to Bean before it was reviewed and given to Malenstyn.
“That’s happened a couple times, so I’m good with it as long as we’re winning,” Bean said.
Bensmiller scored his goal with 31.3 seconds left in the second when he took a long pass from Marshall Donald before skating into the Kelowna zone on a breakaway and snapping a shot past Whistle.
“I was looking short side and then decided to try an easier shot and put it high glove,” said Bensmiller, who had a big smile on his face after scoring his first goal in his 17th WHL game. “I’ve had some chances in the past few games to get some, but it feels really good to finally get it.”
Tambellini then added an insurance marker at 6:02 of the third when he one-timed a pass from Lang past Whistle to extend his goal-scoring streak.
“That one was pretty simple,” Tambellini said. “Lang made a great play to me and it was a wideopen net.”
After Dube counted a power-play goal to break Shields’ shutout bid, Lang scored into an empty net to seal the victory for the Hitmen, who played without the services of forward Jake Virtanen and defenceman Travis Sanheim for the second straight game.
The Rockets, meanwhile, were missing three players from their lineup in forward Rourke Chartier along with defencemen Madison Bowey and Calgarian Josh Morrissey, whom Kelowna acquired last week in a trade with the Prince Albert Raiders.
All of the aforementioned players were attending Canada’s national junior team selection camp in Toronto, although Sanheim was released from the squad earlier in the day on Sunday.
Sanheim is expected to be back in the Hitmen lineup for their next home game on Wednesday (7 p.m.) against the Edmonton Oil Kings.