Lethbridge Hurricanes
Eastern Division

Arntsen’s late dagger gives Hurricanes 5-4 win over Pats

Written by Kevin Shaw on

 

In their first excursion to the province of Alberta since the end of November, the Regina Pats made the trek to Lethbridge to play the Hurricanes. In their last meeting in Lethbridge on November 24th, Connor Bedard scored with one second left in overtime to give the Pats a 3-2 win.

The Hurricanes scored a powerplay goal with 2.3 seconds left shocking the Pats and sending the Lethbridge faithful home happy.

Here are how things went:

Ryker Evans notched his seventh of the season 2:20 into the game as his shot beat Jared Picklyk who was making his seventh straight start for the Hurricanes. Logan Linklater picked up the lone assist on the goal marking his first point as a Pat. Everyone watching thought that the Pats made it a two-goal game, but the shot was redirected in by the glove hand of Tanner Howe so the score stayed 1-0 heading into the first intermission. The Pats were up 1-0 but down 13-8 on the shot clock.

The Pats had 44 seconds of 5-on-3 powerplay time to open the second period and 29 seconds into the period Cole Dubinsky notched his 13th of the season as he wired home a one-timer feed from Bedard past the Hurricane goaltender to give the Pats a 2-0 lead. Just over a minute later, the Hurricanes broke into the Pats zone on an odd-man rush and Alex Thacker’s shot got past Matthew Kieper and it just trickled over the goal line giving him eight goals on the season. The shorthanded goal at 1:33 got the Hurricanes on the board down 2-1. The goals kept coming fast and furious early in the second.

The Hurricanes tied the game up when Noah Chadwick (first career goal) fired a point shot that was deflected in front of a screened Kieper just 3:18 into the second. Yegor Klavdiev (ninth) gave the Hurricanes their first lead of the game when controlled the puck into the offensive zone, dragged the puck through the Pats defense, and beat Kieper glove side with a quick wrister at 6:33 of the frame to give the Hurricanes a 3-2 lead.

More goals as the Pats tied things up just over the halfway mark of the middle frame.

The Pats were afforded a second 5-on-3 and they made the Hurricanes pay. Evans wired home his second of his game (eighth of the season) with a booming one-timer through past Picklyk at 10:18.

Both teams made corrections and neither team was able to take the lead as the first forty minutes wound down. The Pats outshot the Hurricanes 13-7 in the second and took a 21-20 lead into the third period.

Would the third period be as exciting as the second? Not quite, but it did have its moments.

Justin Hall (22nd) scored to give the Hurricanes a 4-3 lead after a Pat turnover. The Hurricanes alternate captain wired home his 22nd at 9:23 of the third. Exactly two minutes later Stanislav Svozil tied the game with his second of the season when he fired a laser top shelf past the Hurricane netminder to tie the game up at 4-4.

With 2.3 seconds left the Hurricanes stuck a dagger into the Pats’ hearts as Joe Arntsen (fourth) scored a powerplay goal on a point shot that was deflected past Kieper giving the Hurricanes a 5-4 win.

Lethbridge ended up outshooting the Pats 16-3 in the third and 37-27 overall.

Patterings… Regina has recalled Kelton Pyne from the U18 Pat Canadians after Drew Sim was injured early in the last game… the Hurricanes took a pair of delay of game penalties and a too many men penalty in the game… the three stars were: Thacker (1st, 1G-2A), Dubinsky (2nd, 1G-2A), and Hall (3rd, 1G-2A)…The Pats’ next action is Sunday, February 6 in Calgary at 3:00 p.m. Saskatchewan time.