Canes dulled by the Blades

The Lethbridge Hurricanes are still looking for their first home win of the season. They almost got there Saturday night, but fell one point short as the Canes fell 3-2 to the Saskatoon Blades in a shootout in Western Hockey League action at the Enmax Centre.

With the shootout setback, the Hurricanes are 2-3-0-1 on the season.

Keltie Jeri-Leon and Logan Barlage scored for the Hurricanes, while Josh Paterson and Riley McKay replied for the Blades, who are now 6-2-0-0.

“I think we were OK to start again,” said Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio. “I think Saskatoon outplayed us in the second period and in the third period we were OK. We have some issues with work ethic from some guys and we have to pick up the pace. Our older guys have to be a lot better. The other teams’ older guys are leading them and outplaying our older guys.”

Jeri-Leon opened the scoring for Lethbridge before Paterson sent the teams into first intermission tied at 1-1.

The Canes moved up 2-1 on a power play goal from Barlage midway through the second, but McKay drained the equalizer with three seconds left in the second stanza.

Kirby Dach scored the lone goal in the shootout as Blades goaltender Nolan Maier stopped Bellerive, Dylan Cozens and Taylor Ross in the shootout.

Hurricanes goaltender Reece Klassen stopped 34 shots Saturday night.

The Hurricanes return to the Enmax Centre Wednesday night when they host the Regina Pats. Game time is 7 p.m. “It’s kind of like the playoffs, we’ll just learn from our mistakes and move forward,” said Bellerive. “We’re going to have a couple of skates before we get into game action again and just kind of keep the tempo up, keep ourselves going and get right back into it.”