Blades dull the Hurricanes
After going great guns in their previous two games, the Lethbridge Hurricanes big guns were silenced Saturday night. The Canes were downed 5-2 by the blazing Saskatoon Blades in Western Hockey League play Saturday night at the Enmax Centre.
Coming off 6-2 and 7-2 wins over the Calgary Hitmen and Swift Current Broncos, respectively, earlier in the week, the Hurricanes were unable to duplicate that offensive output against a Blades team that effectively dulled Lethbridge’s go-to guys.
The Hurricanes got an early goal from Taylor Ross and Jake Elmer struck for this sixth goal in three games, but the Blades opened up 3-2 and 4-2 leads before highly-touted NHL prospect Kirby Dach sealed the deal with an empty-netter with 49 seconds to go as Saskatoon outshot Lethbridge 43-25.
The Blades are now 37-13-80 and undefeated in 13 games, going 11-0-2-0 in that time.
“I thought their top guys were really good and I thought our top guys struggled,” said Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio, whose team is 29-17-5-5 and remains in second in the Central Division. “In big games like this you need your best players to be your best players and I thought theirs were and ours looks scared.”
The Hurricanes struck first early when Ross charged to the Blades net and was able to poke a rebound past Blades goaltender Nolan Maier 1:20 into the first.
But the Blades grabbed the momentum in the latter stages of the first and turned that into a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.
Blades defenceman Emil Malysjev’s point shot deflected off some traffic in front and past Canes goaltender Carl Tetachuk to tie it 1-1 at the 13:24 mark.
Nolan Kneen sent the visitors to the dressing room up 2-1 with four seconds left, taking a feed from Dach off a neutral ice turnover and scoring on a breakaway.
The Canes nearly tied it up a little over a minute into the second period when Dylan Cozens was sprung on a breakaway, but was denied on the chance.
The second-year forward drew an assist on Ross’ goal and has five helpers in the past four games, but hasn’t scored since Jan. 25 in Seattle, a 10game drought.
The Blades went up 3-1 9:27 into the second when Gary Haden pounced on a generous rebound off Tetachuk from a mid-ice dump-in and made no mistake burying it for a twogoal lead.
Lethbridge pulled back to within one less than one minute later when Elmer struck for his 28th of the season to make it 3-2 after two periods.
The Canes nearly tied it a little over a minute into the third when Elmer rang a shot off the post off the left wing. The Blades turned it back the other way and doubled their lead when Riley McKay was able to poke home a close in feed from Ryan Hughes to make it 4-2 1:33 in.
“We hit the post and it was unlucky,” said Kisio. “It was just a lazy play by us, we just came back and instead of stopping them we laid on our belly and they scored a goal.”
With a little over five minutes to go, the Canes nearly pulled back to within one when Elmer forced a turnover at the Blades blue line and fed Nick Henry, but Henry’s chance slid just past the Blades post to keep the two-goal lead intact.
Saskatoon sent the crowd of 4,832 heading toward the exits when Dach scored into an empty net in the final minute.
“Obviously we knew they were coming in hot and we didn’t buckle down,” said Ross, whose goal was his 27th of the season. “But I think it’s the details again that’s hurting us. We need to have all four lines going for us to be successful.”
The Canes are in Cranbrook this afternoon at 2 p.m. to take on the Kootenay Ice before returning for a key home game Friday night against the Medicine Hat Tigers. The Tigers are a point behind the Hurricanes and lost 5-3 to the Calgary Hitmen Saturday night in Medicine Hat.
“I think we just need to be excited to play,” said Ross. “We’re only two points out from first place in the Central. We’re not in a bad spot, but I agree with Brent, our top guys need to step up more than we have.”
Follow @DWoodardHerald on Twitter