“Rock You Like A Hurricane”

Lethbridge blows away Saskatoon in third period

Joe Arntsen had a monster night for the Hurricanes.

Joe Arntsen turned a tight checking game into a route.

On Wednesday night, Arntsen’s Lethbridge Hurricanes were locked in a 0-0 tie heading into the third period of their WHL regular season clash with the visiting Saskatoon Blades. In the third, Arntsen posted two goals, one assist, a plus-five rating in the plus-minus department and took part in a fight to power the Hurricanes to a 6-1 victory before 2,742 spectators at the Enmax Centre.

Just 1:44 into the third, Arntsen potted his first tally of the night to give the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead. His defensive partner Logan McCutcheon scored 32 seconds later to increase the host side’s advantage to 2-0.

Right before the midway point of the third, Arntsen combined with left-winger Miguel Marques to set up centre Logan Wormald for his 12^th marker of the season to extend the Hurricanes lead to 3-0.

At the 10:51 mark of the third, Blades centre Jordan Keller shoveled home his first career WHL regular season goal from the front of the Lethbridge to cut the host’s lead to 3-1. Keller was playing his eighth career regular season contest with the Blades after being called up for the rest of the current campaign from the Yale Hockey Academy under-18 prep team.

That only temporarily stopped the avalanche of goals coming from the Hurricanes.

Just under three minutes later, Arntsen netted his second of the contest to increase Lethbridge’s advantage to 4-1.

With about five minutes to play in the third, the Blades pulled overage star netminder Nolan Maier for an extra attacker. Hurricanes sophomore defenceman Chase Pauls scored into the vacated Saskatoon net with 4:29 remaining in the third to give the hosts a 5-1 lead.

Hurricanes rookie right-winger Brayden Edwards added his squad’s final goal with just under a minute to play in the frame.

Between the goals by Pauls and Edwards, Arntsen took on Blades right-winger Vaughn Watterodt in a fight to obtain the Gordie Howe hat trick.

Veteran 19-year-old netminder Bryan Thomson stopped 23 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Hurricanes. Left-wingers Justin Hall and Alex Thacker had three assists each for Lethbridge.

Justin Hall had three assists for the Hurricanes.

Maier turned away 31-of-36 shots to take the setback in net for the Blades.

The win was the third straight for the Hurricanes, who improved to 30-30-3-1 to sit seventh overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference. The Hurricanes need to win one of their last four regular season games or earn two more standings points to lock up a WHL playoff berth.

Their first opportunity to pull that off comes on Friday, when they travel to Red Deer to face the 43-17-2-2 Rebels (7 p.m. local time, Peavey Mart Centrium).

The Blades fell to 36-26-3-1 with the setback and made their hopes of getting home ice advantage for a first round playoff series very difficult. They remain fourth in the Eastern Conference one point behind the fourth place 36-23-3-2 Moose Jaw Warriors.

Saskatoon has two games left on its schedule, while Moose Jaw has four contests left to play. The fourth place team gets home ice advantage for a first round playoff series.

The Brandon Wheat Kings, who sit sixth in the Eastern Conference with a 33-25-3-2 record, are six points behind the Warriors and five points behind the Blades. Brandon has five games remaining on its regular season schedule.

Besides the jockeying in the standings, Maier shares the WHL’s career regular season goaltending wins record of 120 victories with Corey Hirsch and Tyson Sexsmith. The Yorkton, Sask., product was looking to take sole ownership of that record.

Hirsch picked up his 120 victories playing four seasons with the Kamloops Blazers from 1988 to 1992. Sexsmith collected his 120 wins over five seasons with the Vancouver Giants from 2005 to 2009. He also had one non-decision relief appearance for the Medicine Hat Tigers late in the 2004-05 campaign.

Saskatoon still has six regulars on the injury list. Defenceman and captain Aidan De La Gorgendiere is out for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury.

Overage star centre Tristen Robins, who is the Blades captain for the rest of the current season, is out day to day with an upper body injury and the same goes for veteran centre Josh Pillar and overage defenceman Rhett Rhinehart.

Rookie centre Lukas Hansen is week-to-week with an upper body injury, and utility player Spencer Shugrue is day to day with a lower body injury.

Alex Thacker had three assists for the Hurricanes.

The Blades return to action on Friday when they host their archrivals the 26-33-4-1 Prince Albert Raiders (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Barlage pumped Hurricanes bump Blades jinx

Humboldt product scores key goal in Lethbridge win

Logan Barlage (#27) celebrates scoring for the Hurricanes.

    Logan Barlage was happy his family and friends didn’t have to see him lose at the SaskTel Centre.
    The third-year centre from Humboldt, Sask., is having a breakout season with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, who have been floating in the top six of the overall WHL standings for much of the season. Despite the fact the Hurricanes are having a strong campaign, they hadn’t beaten the Saskatoon Blades in the first three head-to-head meetings between the two sides.

    Going into action on Saturday, the Blades had won five straight head-to-head meetings with the Hurricanes dating back to last season.

    That all changed on Saturday at the SaskTel Centre as Barlage scored a goal to help the Hurricanes skate away with a 4-3 victory to disappoint much of the 4,243 spectators in attendance.

    “It is good to win in front of family, and I think our team really needed this win,” said Barlage. “We’ve been talking about playing playoff hockey, and I think that we did that tonight.

Hurricanes C Logan Barlage (#27) screens Blades G Nolan Maier.

    “I am proud of the group.”

    Barlage entered the WHL on a full-time basis as a 16-year-old rookie before the start of the 2017-18 campaign with the Swift Current Broncos. The Broncos selected Barlage in the first round and fourth overall in the 2016 WHL Bantam Draft.

    He was dealt shortly before the trade deadline of his rookie campaign to the Hurricanes, because the Broncos were loading up with veteran players to go on a run that ultimately saw them win the WHL title.

    Still, Barlage hadn’t piled up the points like he had coming up through minor hockey. During his first full season in 2017-18, Barlage had seven goals and 13 assists in 71 regular season games split between the Broncos and Hurricanes.

    Last season, Barlage had 15 goals and 24 assists appearing in all of the Hurricanes 68 regular season games. Despite not lighting up the scoreboard, Barlage said he just tried to focus on his effort and not dwell on his statistics.

Logan Barlage (#27) is having a breakout campaign for the Hurricanes.

    “It was just every day you have to get better,” said Barlage, who stands 6-foot-5 and weighs 205 pounds. “You can’t really worry about the points.

    “Obviously, sometimes you do that especially in your draft year. I think this year I really learned not to worry about it, because you never know how the season is going to go. I just focus on myself and getting better every day.”

    Barlage has found his stride this season posting 18 goals and 28 assists in 47 regular season games. He said the fact the Hurricanes coaches kept their faith in him helped create the breakout.

    “I think there has been lots of opportunity for me,” said Barlage. “I get to play lots.

    “I think that comes along with it learning how to play against other top players and just how to keep working on your skills and getting better every day. I think that has been big.”

Koletrane Wilson scored a goal for the Hurricanes on Saturday.

    When Barlage plays close to home, he likes to win. Due to the fact Humboldt is about 112 kilometres east of Saskatoon, Barlage had a number of family and friends in attendance at the SaskTel Centre on Saturday night.

    For most of the first period, it looked the Blades would have a good chance to continue their winning ways over the Hurricanes.

    The Blades stormed out of the gates getting a flurry of scoring chances.

    Just moments into the game, Blades left-winger Kyle Crnkovic drove a shot off the post of the Lethbridge goal.

    Shortly after that chance, Hurricanes netminder Carl Tetachuk had to slide across his crease to stone Blades star centre Tristen Robins on a point-blank shot.

    Tetachuk proceeded to deny Robins on a drive from the right slot to prevent the Blades from scoring on a third golden chance.

Brett Davis scored twice for the Hurricanes on Saturday.

    The Blades broke through at the 5:51 mark of the opening frame when Crnkovic deflected home a shot from the left boards from Slovakian import winger Martin Fasko-Rudas to give the host side a 1-0 lead.

    The Hurricanes evened things up at 1-1 with 52.2 seconds remaining in the opening frame, when overage right-winger Brett Davis ripped home a power-play goal from the right slot to the stick side of Blades netminder Nolan Maier.

    That tally gave the Hurricanes a huge jump.

    Just 28 seconds into the second, Lethbridge right-winger Justin Hall passed the puck out from behind the Saskatoon net to Barlage, who potted his 18^th of the season to give the Hurricanes a 2-1 edge.

    Barlage admitted his goal was key in helping the Hurricanes build off the fact they tied the contest shortly before the first intermission.

    “I think it is a good momentum booster when we score goals and our team gets up for each other,” said Barlage. “When we had momentum, I think we really play off that, so I think it was an important goal.”

Kyle Crnkovic scored a pair of goals for the Blades on Saturday.

    The Hurricanes expanded their edge to 3-1 just under six minutes later with a short-handed goal by Davis. Davis got the puck in his down zone, blew past Blades right-winger Colton Dach who was manning the left point, zipped into the Saskatoon zone and put his second of the contest past Maier.
    Shortley after that tally, Blades feisty left-winger Riley McKay and Hurricanes right-wigner Nick Dorrington engage in a fight that mainly turned into a hugging match.

    With 4:52 remaining in the second, the Hurricanes surge continued as overage defenceman Koletrane Wilson fired a point shot through a screen to put the visitors up 4-1.

A group of young fans get into the action at the SaskTel Centre.

    Barlage said the whole surge resulted from the fact his team scored in the final minute of the first period and inside the first minute of the second.

    “We came in feeling good about the period,” said Barlage, who turned 19-years-old last month. “Then we go back out there and score a couple and get the lead.

    “I think that was ultimately why we won.”

    Before the second ended, the Blades got some traction and Crnkovic banked a shot from the left corner of the Lethbridge zone off Davis into the Hurricanes goal with 52.4 second remaining in the frame. That tally cut the Lethbridge lead to 4-2.

    Just 90 seconds into the third, the Blades trimmed the Lethbridge lead to 4-3 executing a perfect two-on-break. Right-winger Zach Huber broke down the right wing with the puck, fed a pass across the face of the Lethbridge goal to Dach, who netted his eighth goal of the season.

Hurricanes D Alex Cotton (#28) is stopped by Blades G Nolan Maier.

    McKay had a chance to net the equalizer on a breakaway during a power play for the Blades, but he was denied by Tetachuk. The Hurricanes held on from that point.

    Tetachuk stopped 26 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Hurricanes (30-12-2-5). Maier turned away 17 shots to take the setback in goal for the Blades (25-20-2-2).

    Due to the fact the Hurricanes have three players in their 19-year-old years to go with their three overagers, Barlage, who is technically in his 18-year-old season, said his squad could still be considered a younger major junior team.

    Going forward, Barlage said his squad needs to keep striving to reach playoff intensity.

The Hurricanes celebrate their win on Saturday.

    “I think we just have to keep on playing hard,” said Barlage. “I think that is one thing I need to work on my game, and I continue to work on.

    “Since we have a young team, I think we just need to play that hard hockey and get ready for playoffs.”

    The Hurricanes return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Red Deer to take on the Rebels.

    The Blades get back at it on Wednesday when they host the Regina Pats at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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    If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.