Canes tame the Broncos

Another quick start earned the Lethbridge Hurricanes their second straight win. The Hurricanes downed the Swift Current Broncos 7-2 in Western Hockey League play Friday night in Swift Current, outshooting the Broncos 56-28, including 21-10 in the third period.

Lethbridge drained four first-period goals and overage forward Jake Elmer earned his second career hat trick as the Canes posted the decision to improve to 29-16-5-5. That puts them in second place in the Central Division, one point ahead of the 31-20-3-2 Medicine Hat Tigers and two points behind the Edmonton Oil Kings (31-18-4-4). The Tigers lost 3-1 to the Calgary Hitmen Friday night, while the Oil Kings were blanked 4-0 in Regina by the Pats.

But on Friday in Swift Current, Elmer scored twice in the first perod — including one shorthanded, his second in as many games — and completed his hat trick in the third period to give him five goals in the past two games.

Noah Boyko added two goals for Lethbridge and Logan Barlage and Nick Henry provided the other Canes goals.

Calen Addison, Jordy Bellerive, Dylan Cozens and Alex Cotton each had two assists. The Canes went 1-for-3 on the power play and killed off all eight infractions against them.

At the other end, rookie goaltender Bryan Thomson stopped 26 of 28 shots to move to 2-10-0 on the season.

Carter Chorney and Connor Horning were the Broncos goal scorers.

The Hurricanes return home tonight when they host the Saskatoon Blades at 7 p.m. at the Enmax Centre.

The Blades are 35-13-8-0 and 8-0-2-0 in their last 10 games.