Saturday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome carried a different story than the night before at the Enmax Centre, but the ending remained the same.
In the Calgary Hitmen’s second home-and-home series this season, this time featuring the Lethbridge Hurricanes, the Hitmen swept the affair with a pair of convincing 6-3 decisions.
Last night, the Hurricanes (7-8-1-0) could have easily been up 3-0 after the first frame that featured a handful of odd-man rushes. Lucky for the Hitmen, 20-year-old workhorse Nick Schneider stood on his head, backstopping his team with 28 saves.
One night later, it was the hometown team that came out ready to play, as the Hitmen jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the first 20. It was the best first period the team has played this season.
“It was good to see them get rewarded tonight. The effort level was fairly consistent throughout the weekend,” said Hitmen Assistant Coach Trent Cassan. “It was a great start for us right from the get go. Our habits were good, we played the game the right way, had a good work ethic, were good on loose pucks and trailing on loose pucks, created turnovers and got a lot of traffic to the front of the net. We scored some goals in a few different ways tonight.”
Entering the back half of the home-and-home, the Hitmen (6-10-1-0) owned the league’s worst power play, having only converted nine times for a paltry 14.75 per cent clip.
That figure will surely increase after the Hitmen buried a pair on the man advantage in the first period.
“It’s the puck movement; guys are ripping the puck around and that’s really important because (the Hurricanes) really separate the d-men and forwards when we move the puck. We got a lot of shots on net and we got rewarded for it,” said Jakob Stukel, who finished with three assists on the evening.
Russian native Andrei Grishakov and Red Deer product Luke Coleman worked a nice little two-man game in the first.
Grishakov got things going when he cut across the middle of the slot just as Coleman’s rebound bounced out to him. Without hesitation, his sixth of the season put the Hitmen up 1-0 at the 5:10 mark.
“It’s fun scoring goals and not getting scored on — it’s a nice little change. (Our) line has been working well the last few games,” said Coleman. “It was nice to get a couple goals tonight.”
Grishakov returned the favour on the power play 2:33 later, when his shot from just beyond the left faceoff circle was redirected down past Hockey Canada prospect Stuart Skinner. The goal was quickly reviewed for fear of a high stick, but was deemed a good hockey goal.
For Skinner, this wasn’t the start he was imagining, playing in his final game before the 2017 CIBC Canada Russia Series. He picked up the loss last night, after he allowed five goals on 30 shots. Tonight, it got worse, as he allowed four goals on 15 shots. He was replaced by the 18-year-old Reece Klassen at the start of the second period. In two periods of play, he stopped all 17 shots he faced.
Skinner will be joined by Jake Bean of the Hitmen for the CHL series against the Russians. Bean was named as an alternate captain, as the series kicks off Monday in Moose Jaw. The two teams will also faceoff Tuesday in Swift Current, before the series swifts to the Ontario Hockey League.
Also on the international front, 6-foot-6 Hitmen defenceman Jackson van de Leest was absent as he suits up for Team Canada Red at the World U17 Hockey Challenge, starting tomorrow night in Dawson Creek, B.C. Joining him on Team Red will be the Hurricanes centreman and recently named WHL Rookie of the Month, Dylan Cozens, who was also scratched from the lineup tonight.
Piling onto Skinner’s nightmare start, was Stukel, who caught a Hurricanes line napping by hitting the accelerator down the left boards and around the net. He beat Skinner to the post, but he didn’t have the angle to tuck the puck in. Luckily, his captain and line mate Matteo Gennaro was sitting at the mouth of the goal and easily tapped in his team-leading 12th goal of the year.
Putting the finishing touches on a thrilling first period for the 8,649 fans in attendance, was Vladislav Yeryomenko on the power play. Yeryomenko, who came into the game having scored three goals and four assists in his last three outings, waited for a screen to develop in front of the net. Then, he sent a wrister on target that pinballed it’s way past Skinner.
The Hurricanes put their bid in for the large comeback midway through the second following the biggest hit of the game. Newly acquired right winger Orca Wiesblatt of the Hitmen obliterated Josh Tarzwell into the boards, sending his stick flying into the stands as a souvenir.
The puck eventually came back around to the point and NHL draft hopeful Calen Addison, who piped one past Schneider.
With the final minutes ticking away, the Hitmen’s once bulletproof penalty kill unit allowed a harmless unassisted goal to Zane Franklin, who was the right man at the right spot, when Mark Kastelic failed to clear a puck in front Schneider. Franklin had no one in his way as he went onto roof his seventh on the season.
Hitmen penalty killers once killed off a season-high 12-straight penalties, but have since lost the title of the league’s best kill, as their percentage dripped from 87.5 per cent 83.1 per cent.
By now, teams should be familiar with mouth guard misconduct penalties. The Hitmen have picked up a few along the way in their 17 games with the new rule. But a team-first occurred when Kastelic and Grishakov both received mouth guard misconducts 13 seconds apart in the second period.
With two-thirds of their top line in the box for 10 minutes, the Hurricanes began to mount some momentum that started to feel similar to the Spokane Chiefs third-period comeback 10 days ago.
“We had a lot of veteran guys step up after that one and said we had to move forward, put it past us and build off of it. I was happy with the results tonight, taking four points is key against a divisional team like Lethbridge is huge,” said Stukel.
At one point, the Hitmen were blasting the Hurricanes and carried a 25-9 lead in shots midway through the second. The Hurricanes flipped the script in the second half, outshooting the Calgary club 22-9.
Showing no signs of fatigue, Schneider looked as fresh as ever between the pipes. His mobility was fluid, as he had no issues sliding back-and-forth in the blue paint, keeping up with bouncing pucks, peering through mazes of bodies and shutting down any threats. He made 28 saves to pick up his 82nd career win and sixth with the Hitmen.
“I thought Nick was really good last night and really good again tonight. He wasn’t able to play last weekend so he looked fresh out there. He’s our No. 1 goalie and he’s been in these situations before. It’s nothing new for him,” said Cassan.
For Schneider, it marked the third time this season he has suited up in back-to-back games. Last year, he did so eight times, including starting three-straight games while the Medicine Hat Tigers rolled through Washington.
It was a refreshing win for the Hitmen, who have played half of their games in one-goal affairs. The pair of 6-3 victories ties the Hitmen with their longest winning streak of the season, if you could call it that. They will look to duplicate this past weekend’s results next weekend, when they participate in another home-and-home series, this time with the Central Division leading Tigers (10-6-0-0). The two-game set kicks off Friday night (7:30 p.m.) at the Saddledome and wraps up on Remembrance Day in Medicine Hat.
