Friday night will go down as one the Winnipeg ICE will look to erase out of their minds very quickly. After beating the Lethbridge Hurricanes in a shootout two nights prior, the very strong Hurricanes came out and hammered Winnipeg inside of the Wayne Fleming Arena, 8-2.
Things started on the right note for Winnipeg as they scored first, but that was about the only thing that went their way in this contest as they wrapped up their two-game set with the Canes’ with a split.
“You learn from every game, we can’t over dwell on this one and we have to focus on playing again on Saturday,” said James Patrick courtesy of winnipegice.ca. “The players have to be pumped up to play on Saturday.”
“We came out flat all three periods and that’s the result we’re going to get against a strong team like Lethbridge,” said Cole Muir after the game.
Isaac Johnson set up Michal Teply who scored his fifth of the season at the 11:46 mark to give Winnipeg a 1-0 lead. It didn’t take Lethbridge long to strike back and when they did, they doubled it up.
At the 15:45 mark, Oliver Okuliar hit double digits on the season. He scored his 10th goal to tie it up and 27 seconds later, Lethbridge struck again. This time it was Justin Hall who scored his third of the campaign to give the Canes’ a 2-1 lead after 20.
The club kept on coming in the second and it was their power play that got hot. On the man advantage early, Lethbridge made it 3-1 at the 1:37 mark. Okuliar scored his second of the game and 11th of the season. Then at 4:30, Dylan Cozens scored his 11th goal of the season. The goal was on the power play as Lethbridge led it 4-1.
At the 15:53 mark, the ICE did trim the deficit. Cole Muir scored his second of the season to make it just a 4-2 game.
“I think any game is up for grabs at any time, but that second goal didn’t really help us out,” said Muir. “If we work as a team and just compete harder, we’ll be fine.”
Being down by two goals is indeed the closest Winnipeg would get.
(Photo – Lethbridge Hurricanes)
Okuliar picked up the hat-trick at the 16:45 mark as the club went up 5-2. At the 17:33 mark, Chase Wheatcroft made it 6-2 and Lethbridge wasn’t done. With just 16 seconds left in the second, Alex Cotton scored his fourth of the season as the Canes’ had a 7-2 lead after 40.
With 2:01 left in the final frame, D-Jay Jerome scored his fifth of the season as the contest was now 8-2 and that was the final as the Canes’ will leave Manitoba’s capital with a split.
Winnipeg remains on home ice against Swift Current on Saturday.
“We have to win our stick battles and the 50/50 battles, if we do that, we’ll be fine,” concluded Muir.
Lethbridge will now head to Brandon to challenge the Wheat Kings.
The Hurricanes are sitting with a 10-4-0-3 record while Winnipeg is 7-6-1.
ICINGS:
- With his three goals, Oliver Okuliar has 12 for the season and that’s the most in the WHL. He’s also third in league scoring.
- Four points from Dylan Cozens put his total up to 22 on the season which is the second-most in the league.
- Lethbridge went a perfect 2-for-2 on the power play, Winnipeg went 0-for-1.
- Dean McNabb made his return for Winnipeg, but he only came in relief for Jesse Makaj. Makaj was pulled after giving up seven goals on 23 shots. McNabb then made nine saves on 10 shots.
