Erica Perreaux

Hurricanes power play kills Rebels

When you are a young team, not everything goes your way. Sometimes when one thing is clicking, something else isn’t. Then, the next time out, the thing you worked on in practice gets better, but something else lags behind.

That’s the way the wind blew for Red Deer as the Lethbridge Hurricanes made their way to Westerner Park Centrium for a Tuesday night tilt.

Tonight, it was the five-on-five play for the Rebels that went well. The penalty kill, though, left a lot to be desired.

“Obviously, our penalty killing wasn’t good enough. They got three power-play goals,” said a frustrated Brent Sutter postgame.

Lethbridge hit pay dirt on three of their four power plays.

It was the team’s undoing, as they looked good on their own power play (2-for-5) and played well at even strength.

“It’s probably the best game we’ve played all year five-on-five. I thought we did a really good job. We’ve had seven games at home. We’ve won one. Fourteen points and we’ve got three. Obviously, our home record isn’t even close to where it needs to be. We’ve got to get our whole game in order,” said Sutter.

Through the first 20 minutes, all that both sides could muster was one goal. Of course, it was a Lethbridge power-play marker to get things started.

Koletrane Wilson‘s point shot hit a body in front and beat Anders through the five-hole. That body was Dino Kambeitz, and his fourth of the season gave the visitors the early advantage they were looking for. It was the seventh time this season the opposition scored first against Red Deer in just 12 games.

Tempers flared at the buzzer. A late hit was delivered by the Hurricanes, and Ty Prefontaine and Cameron Hausinger spent several moments chirping one another.

Seven seconds into the second period, the two dropped the mitts. Most of the time was spent skating in circles before a few punches were thrown and both players toppled to the ice.

Moments later, the Rebels tied the game up on — you guessed it — the power play. Jayden Grubbe scored his first WHL goal by firing a blocker-side shot behind Bryan Thomson.

Moments later, with another Rebel stationed in the penalty box, the Hurricanes put the power play back to work. And work they did. Justin Hall swiped at a puck that was put in the slot by Alex Cotton. His second of the season gave the Hurricanes life.

Eight and a half minutes into the second period, the lead for the Hurricanes was bumped to two. On yet another man advantage, Wilson’s point shot got by everyone including Anders, and it was 3-1.

All four goals were scored with the man advantage to this point.

The first even-strength goal of the game came with 5:25 to play in the second period. Oliver Okuliar tipped in a shot right in front of Anders to give the Hurricanes a 4-1 lead. Cotton was the shot taker, giving him two assists on the evening.

Before the second period was out, the Rebels had an opportunity of their own with the man advantage. Zak Smith scored his second goal of the season on a tip-in right in front of Thomson. The puck sailed through the goalie’s pads and returned a little bit of the momentum to Red Deer.

Through two periods, Red Deer had outshot Lethbridge 20-16.

Momentum stayed on Red Deer’s side through the early stages of the third period as Smith dragged the Rebels back to within one goal. His second of the night was the only goal scored at even strength for the Rebels.

“Its been a slow year. It’s nice to get two goals, but at the end of the day, you’ve gotta look at our team, and we’ve lost four or five in a row now, so we gotta get back in the win column. That’s most important,” said the night’s first star, Zak Smith.

It was not enough, though, as Lethbridge continued to apply pressure on Red Deer and didn’t allow them to enter the offensive zone with time winding down.

Rebel Yell… The three stars were 1) Zak Smith 2) Koletrain Wilson 3) Brett Davis. With the win, the Hurricanes are on a season-high five-game win streak. Red Deer is now 0-4-0-1 in its last five games. Dawson Barteaux had six shots to lead all players; Dino Kambeitz had four for Lethbridge. Following the night’s game, Red Deer now has averaged 14.5 penalty minutes per game. The penalty kill dropped to 78.2% and is ranked 16th in the WHL. Red Deer wraps up its four-game homestand on Friday as they take on the Seattle Thunderbirds.