The Calgary Hitmen were 3:13 away hitting the holiday break in good spirits.
Now, the holiday break will be spent figuring out how to claw back into the Central Division standings along with valuable time with rarely seen family members, following the 4-3 loss to the Kootenay Ice Sunday evening at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
The Hitmen were given a glorious chance to jump back into playoff contention with four-straight game against the Kootenay Ice, who sat four points ahead of the Hitmen before the holiday break started.
A rough 5-1 loss to open the home-and-home series last night in Cranbrook stretched the Ice’s lead for the final divisional playoff spot to six points.
Keenan Taphorn tried to stuff a puck past Hitmen netminder Nick Schneider’s pads. The rebound landed on the stick of Alec Baer, who had an empty net to shoot at, tying the game at the 16:47 mark of the final frame in front of the 6,269 fans in attendance.
Overtime didn’t last long as Colton Kroeker waited at the top of the Hitmen zone for Jonathan Smart to gain position at the left post for the one-timer tap in.
Smart’s fourth on the season secured the extra point for the Ice and extended their lead in the standings to seven points.
“I’m not happy with these two games this weekend and as a group we aren’t happy,” said Andrew Fyten. “We gotta get back to work after the break and get these two games.”
The Hitmen were in a position to move past the Ice in the standings, with eight points up for grabs in the four-game set — a first for the Hitmen (10-11-4-1).
Now, the Hitmen will have to clear their minds over the break before rejoining the team to practice on Boxing Day, as they pick up their schedule the following day in Cranbrook.
The Hitmen lost their second overtime game of the season when leading after the first period.
Their power play has risen from the dead and continued to improve into above-average levels.
Andrei Grishakov was the sixth man in on a scramble for the puck behind the Ice net. Waiting for the right moment, he snagged the puck out from a maze of skates and sent it off to Dom Schmiemann on the other side of the ice. Schmiemann wasted no time in finding Jakob Stukel on the right post for the one-timer tap in for his 15th of the season.
The power play marker now gives the Hitmen at least one goal in eight of their pervious nine games, as their power play percentage has risen from 11.11 per cent up to 19.9 per cent, good enough for 14th in the WHL.
The lead was short lived when Cole Muir cleanly beat Cael Zimmerman in the faceoff dot. The puck came back to Russell, who was pursued by Zach Huber. He optioned the puck to Michael King, who wired a shot past Schneider for his sixth of the season.
Not done working after a long shift, Luke Coleman emptied the tank by sprinting down the ice to negate an icing call. Rather quickly, he backhanded the puck out front to a fresh Fyten who was barreling down the slot. Crashing the blue paint, Fyten deflected the puck up on top of Duncan McGovern. The puck trickled across the goal line for a millisecond before getting fished out by Bobby Russell. The play was blown dead immediately and went under review. The second look didn’t last long, as Fyten was awarded his eighth of the season.
“It barely went across, I didn’t even have a good look at it to be honest,” said Fyten. “I began thinking in my head, ‘oh, here we go again, not another waved off,’ but I was happy to see it stand.”
Capping off a three-goal first period, Mark Kastelic skated down the right win into the Ice zone on the penalty kill. With 18-year-old blue liner Jonathan Smart separating Kastelic and the net, he snapped a harmless wrister on target and foiled Duncan McGovern. It was the fifth short handed goal allowed by the Ice this season and the second short-handed point of Kastelic’s career.
“I didn’t really see it go in. I shot through a screen and heard the horn go off so I knew it went in,” said Kastelic, who won’t get much on-ice time over the break, as he heads home to Phoenix, Ariz.
The Hitmen are lucky that the Ice own the league’s worst power play (13.5 per cent) or this game wouldn’t have had the chance to go to overtime.
In the second, the Hitmen committed four minors, preventing them from putting the Ice (15-17-2-0) to bed.
On a different kind of streak, Schmiemann entered the holiday finale with penalties in five of his last seven outings with the Hitmen. In the second, he got flagged for roughing, sending the Ice and their last-ranked power play to work. He has 14 penalty minutes since joining the Hitmen.
Seventeen seconds into the man advantage, Brett Davis cranked up a point shot that ricocheted off Cameron Hausinger’s knee and in, to bring the Ice within one.
Penalties and a short bench hindered the Hitmen in the second half.
Jackson van de Leest was hustling back to retrieve a puck when he got tangled with the Winnipeg-born Colton Veloso and slammed into the end wall. Van de Leest hit the wall first, absorbing Veloso’s 191-pound frame. Van de Leest laid on the ice for a few moments as Hitmen trainer Kyle Vouriot came to check on the 16-year-old defenceman. After catching his breath, van de Leest was able to leave on his own, but did not return for the remainder of the game.
That was the last thing the Hitmen needed, as they were already skating a pair of affiliated players with the departure of Jake Bean and Vladislav Yeryomenko for the World Junior tournament and injuries to Andrew Viggars and Jameson Murray.
“We had a young d-core all weekend and they responded well. They got good minutes and I thought Devan and Luke did a great job,” said Hitmen Head Coach Dallas Ferguson.
Murray was listed as day-to-day over the weekend and Ferguson stated that it was more injury-prevention than anything, wanting to bring him back healthy for stretch drive after the break. Klassen and Prokop said that they will be in touch with the team over the break and determine whether or not they will rejoin the club.
Even if the Hitmen sweep the home-and-home with the Ice when action resumes, they will still be on the outside looking in of the playoff picture.
“They’re huge games for us. It’s crunch time after the break. We need to bear down in that first game back and get these wins,” said Kastelic.
Puck drops first in Cranbrook Dec. 27, with the two rivals returning to the ‘Dome Dec. 28 (7 p.m.).
