CANES go for sweep
Hurricanes looked to lock up first-round series with Rebels in four games —
The Lethbridge Hurricanes missed a chance for the sweep and the Red Deer Rebels will play another day. The Rebels downed the Canes 5-2 in Game 4 of the teams’ Western Hockey League opening-round series Wednesday at the Enmax Centrium in Red Deer.
With the win the Rebels avoid the sweep and cut the Hurricanes series lead to 3-1 with Game 5 at the Enmax Centre Saturday at 7 p.m.
During a series in which Rebels head coach Brent Sutter pointed to struggles on special teams, Red Deer’s power play provided the game-winner as Brandon Hagel scored 38 seconds into the third period to snap a 2-2 tie.
Alexander Alexeyev added an insurance marker and Kristian Reichel drained an empty-netter to round out the scoring.
“They competed and they battled. I’m not sure we had many guys for us ready to compete,” said Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio.
The Rebels came out with some early pressure and jumped to a 1-0 lead 7:33 in on Reese Johnson’s first of the series.
The Hurricanes got that back and took a 1-1 tie into the first intermission as defenceman Matthew Stanley took a feed from Taylor Ross and sent a sharp angle shot past Rebels goaltender Ethan Anders.
The teams skated through a mostly scoreless second period before swapping goals late.
Lethbridge defenceman Tate Olson took a no-look backhand pass from Brad Morrison and sent a shot off the post and in for a 2-1 lead.
That only stood up for 58 seconds as Mason McCarty beat Canes goaltender Logan Flodell from in close for a 2-2 tie.
The Rebels owned the scoresheet the rest of the way, starting with a Hurricanes bench minor for too many men with 26 seconds left in the second and spilled into the third.
That set the table for Hagel’s winner 38 seconds in as the Rebels forward buried his fourth of the series for a 3-2 lead.
Red Deer doubled that lead after a Hurricanes golden opportunity when defenceman Calen Addison skated in but was stopped by Anders which sprung Alexeyev on a breakaway, making no mistake beating Flodell for a 4-2 lead. Anders drew the second assist.
The Hurricanes pulled Flodell with a little over two minutes to go and went on the power play when Hagel was called for hooking with 1:04 remaining, but the Rebels iced the win to stay alive on Reichel’s empty-netter.
“I think they just competed harder than we did,” said Hurricanes forward Jake Elmer. “I don’t think we were ready from the start. We took it too lightly. They just got the best of us today, we weren’t playing to the best of our abilities. We got into some bad habits, but we’ll come back stronger and better than we did tonight.”
The Rebels' special teams made an appearance and helped extend their season.
“Obviously we needed a win,” said Rebels head coach Brent Sutter. “We got a power-play goal, which was huge. I thought we did a lot of good things. We had certain individuals play better tonight. Our team game was better. It wasn’t as loose as it was last night and we capitalized on some opportunities.”
Flodell made 31 saves while Anders kicked aside 28.
“He played well,” said Sutter of Anders. “He probably would have liked to have that first one back. But he didn’t get rattled from it and stayed settled in.”
The Canes look to close it out and home Saturday and avoid a return trip to Red Deer for Game 6.
“Just play the same way we did in Games 1 and 2,” said Elmer. “We were physical, we were tough and we were hard to play against. We didn’t take crap from them and dealt them some crap. We worked really hard in Games 1 and 2 and we need to get back to playing our systems.”