Hurricanes rock Blades with third period surge

Berge nets two in 4-2 win to end 12-game road skid

The Hurricanes celebrate a second goal from Owen Berge (#29).

Matt Anholt just wants his Lethbridge Hurricanes to win the day.

The Hurricanes first-year head coach, who has been with the team since the 2018-19 campaign, knows his squad is in a rebuilding stage after making it to the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship Series last year. In the 2024-25 campaign, the Hurricanes finished sixth overall in the WHL with a 42-21-3-2 record and loaded up with trades to make their long post-season run.

Due to massive graduations on their roster, the Hurricanes have taken their lumps in 2025-26 as they go through a rebuild. They are looking for good signs and breakthroughs like the one they had on Saturday night at the SaskTel Centre against the host Saskatoon Blades.

Owen Berge had a pair of goals for the Hurricanes.

The two teams entered the third period of a WHL regular season clash locked in a 1-1 tie, and the Hurricanes exploded for three straight goals. Owen Berge, who is a 19-year-old centre, started the surge with a pair of tallies and left-winger Gavin Lesiuk, who turned 18-years-old near the middle of January, potted a single to give the visitors a 4-1 lead.

The Hurricanes would proceed to pull out a 4-2 victory before 4,397 spectators. The win allowed Lethbridge to improve to 16-35-0-1 and also end a 12 game losing skid on the road.

Before Saturday’s win over the Blades, the Hurricanes last road win came on November 18, 2025, when they slipped past the Royals in Victoria 4-3. Lethbridge entered Saturday’s game having been blanked 6-0 one night earlier against the powerhouse Raiders in Prince Albert.

Gavin Lesiuk celebrates scoring a goal in the third period.

“I think, when wins are hard to come by, every win is good,” said Anholt. “I think our guys really dug in tonight after losing a hard game last night in P.A.

“As good as P.A. is, it is still no fun to get blown out, obviously, in any sort of game. It was a really good job by our guys, but especially our leadership group to get the guys back in order and come in and get a greasy road win.”

At the 5:59 mark of the third, the Hurricanes started their surge working on the power play and pouncing on a Blades miscue. Blades 18-year-old defenceman Isaac Poll had the puck behind his net and threw a clearing attempt up the centre of the ice.

Berge intercepted the clear, skated down in front of the Blades net, and wired home a shot to the top right corner of the cage to give the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead. He proceeded to score his second of the night at the 11:32 mark of the third potting home a rebound at the left side of the Saskatoon net that came from a long distance drive from 17-year-old rookie right-winger Easton Daneault. That tally pushed the Hurricanes lead out to 3-1.

Matteo Fabrizi, left, and Tyler Parr engage in a fight.

Just 50 seconds after Berge’s second tally, Lesiuk was forechecking the Saskatoon zone, and he stole the puck from Blades 19-year-old defenceman Tristen Doyle. Lesiuk jetted into the left faceoff circle and drove a shot to the top right corner of the Saskatoon net to make the Hurricanes advantage stand at 4-1.

With 5:54 remaining in the third, Blades defenceman Jack Kachkowski, who turned 19-years-old near the middle of January, drove into the Lethbridge zone down the left wing and put a pass across the face of the Hurricanes net to Blades overage captain Tyler Parr positioned by the right post. Parr tapped the puck home into an empty cage to trim the Hurricanes lead to 4-2.

The Blades thought they had a goal with 1:14 remaining in the third coming off the stick of 20-year-old star right-winger Rowan Calvert. Calvert put a shot on net that was stopped by the left pad of Hurricanes 18-year-old netminder Koen Cleaver, but then Cleaver was driven into the net by a mass of bodies that surrounded the net. The officials blew the play dead and ruled no goal.

Hudson Kibblewhite (#22) scored the Hurricanes first goal.

Saskatoon was not able to score in the 74 seconds that remained on the clock, which allowed Lethbridge to pick up the win.

Anholt said his Hurricanes didn’t do anything fancy in the third period surge.

“I would say it was just the overall battles,” said Anholt. “We just probably won maybe a little more than we were winning in the second and the first, especially at the end of the first more so.

“Just some of those simple little battles, especially between the blue lines, you win those battles and you usually are going to lead to O-zone time. You look at any of our goals, even our power-play goal, there is always maybe a little sequence of events that led to that. It is just those little battles that lead to good stuff, and I think our guys dug in a little more in the third.”

Koen Cleaver made 33 saves in goal for the Hurricanes.

The contest began with a spirited fight just 22 seconds into the opening frame between Parr and Hurricanes 20-year-old defenceman Matteo Fabrizi. Parr, who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 192 pounds, and Fabrizi, who stands 6-foot-6 and weighs 240 pounds, engaged in a long and feisty bout that finally ended with Fabrizi getting a takedown.

At the 7:32 mark of the first, the Hurricanes opened the scoring of Saturday’s game on a goal from 18-year-old centre Hudson Kibblewhite. Kibblewhite, who is a former member of the Blades, tipped home a point shot in front of the Saskatoon net that came off the stick of 18-year-old defenceman Carsen Adair.

Kazden Mathies had the Blades first goal on Saturday.

With just under nine minutes to play in the first, the Blades just missed getting the equalizer as Calvert drove a shot off the post.

Saskatoon came out flying in the second holding a 14-3 edge in shots on goal for the frame. The Blades evened the score at 1-1 scoring on the power play at the 10:23 mark of the second period.

Blades star 17-year-old centre Cooper Williams had the puck at the left side boards in the Lethbridge zone and passed the puck across the face of the Hurricanes net to 18-year-old centre Kazden Mathies. Mathies controlled the puck at the right side of the Lethbridge net and quickly potted his 15^th of the campaign for the equalizer.

Cooper Williams set up the Blades first goal.

That set the stage for the third period to play out as it did starting with the Hurricanes three-goal surge.

Evan Gardner turned away 16 shots to take the setback in net for the Blades (26-22-3-1). Cleaver stopped 33 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Hurricanes.

“Honestly, the biggest goal for us is just trying to win the day and try to get better every day as an individual and then hopefully that makes us better collectively,” said Anholt. “Every practice, that has kind of been the mentality and just being competitive, being even competitive against yourself and trying to improve every day in the gym, on the ice and all that stuff.

The Blades thought they scored with 1:14 remaining in the third.

“I think we’ve seen some really good strides by a lot of guys, and Gavin Lesiuk is one of those young guys that has obviously had a really good game tonight. He is one of many on our team right now, because we’re so young. (We’re focused on) just winning the day and trying to compete every day.”

The Blades get back at it on Saturday when they host the Regina Pats (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

The Hurricanes are off until Friday when they return home to host the Everett Silvertips (7 p.m. local time, VisitLethbridge.com Arena).

Anholt said he reminds his players on his young team that the experiences they are picking up will be valuable down the road.

The Hurricanes celebrate their win on Saturday.

“That is kind of the ebbs and flows of the WHL,” said Anholt. “We’re a young team right now, but we won’t be a young team soon.

“All of a sudden, we’ll be an old team, because a lot of these guys will grow up together. Right now, we’re just trying to take lessons. For example P.A., you take lessons from even how good they are and what makes them successful.

“Everett has got a lot of similarities to that P.A. team, where they play fast and they’re deep and they get on you. It is going to be a really hard challenge on Friday. I’m happy that we’re at home, so we can at least set some matchups.”

Blades great Maracle fighting cancer, funds being raised

A Norm Maracle hockey card.

Saskatoon Blades all-time great netminder Norm Maracle is fighting Burkitt Lymphoma, which is a very aggressive and fast-moving cancer of the B cells – a type of white blood cells.

Maracle, who is 51-years-old, recently received this cancer diagnosis. A GoFundMe page was set up about five days ago to raise funds to help him and his family through this challenging time.

Maracle played goal for three seasons for the Blades from 1991 to 1994. He was with the club for arguably the team’s most memorable three-year stretch.

As a 17-year-old rookie in the 1991-92 campaign, Maracle appeared in 29 games with the Blades posting a record of 13 wins, six losses and three ties, a 3.41 goals against average, a .946 save percentage and one shutout. In the post-season, Maracle started the majority of the Blades games as they advanced to the WHL Championship Series falling in seven games to the Kamloops Blazers, who moved on to capture the Memorial Cup as CHL champions.

Maracle, who stood 5-foot-10 and weighed 205 pounds in his playing days, went into his second season with the Blades as their main starter in the 1992-93 campaign. During the regular season, Maracle appeared in 53 games posting a 27-18-3 record, a 3.27 goals against average, a .910 save percentage and one shutout. The Blades fell in a best-of-seven conference semifinal series to the Regina Pats in five games.

The 1993-94 campaign was a stellar 19-year-old season for Maracle. He appeared in 56 regular season games for the Blades posting a 41-13-1 record, a 2.76 goals against average, a .918 save percentage and two shutouts. He proceeded to once again backstop the Blades into the WHL Championship Series where they again fell in seven games to the Blazers, who went on to win the Memorial Cup.

For the 1993-94 campaign, Maracle was named the winner of the Del Wilson Trophy as the top goaltender in the WHL and he claimed honours as the CHL’s goaltender of the year along with being named a CHL first team all-star.

During Blades games, it was common for Blades fans to scream out “Norm” like in the television show Cheers, when Maracle took the ice.

After his time with the Blades, Maracle moved on to a lengthy professional career that ran from 1994 to 2012 that included playing in 66 NHL regular season games split between the Detroit Red Wings and the Atlanta Thrashers.

For those looking to help Maracle in his battle with Burkitt lymphoma, the link for his GoFundMe page can be found by clicking right here.

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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Molleken to get deserved banner night from Blades

Lorne Molleken mans the Blades bench on March 1, 2013. (Steve Hiscock/Saskatoon Blades)

Lorne Molleken was genuinely “all in” when it came to trying to take the Saskatoon Blades franchise to new heights.

Having spent 14 seasons with the WHL club over two different stints in the roles of head coach and general manager, Molleken authentically cared about the hockey team, his players and Saskatoon as a city. The emotion could be seen during his farewell press conference in late March of 2014 when he mutually parted ways with the team that just finished its first season under the ownership of the Priestner family.

The always classy Molleken said at that farewell presser the time had come to shake hands and move on and that there were no hard feelings. He was doing his part in clearing the way for the new owners to properly put their stamp on the team.

On Friday, the Blades will honour their all-time leader in head coaching victories as the 65-year-old Molleken will have a builder’s banner raised to the rafter of the SaskTel Centre before the club’s regular season finale against the Brandon Wheat Kings set for 7 p.m. The game should be a good one too as the Blades sit fifth overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with a 37-26-3-1 record with the Wheat Kings sitting sixth overall in the conference with a 35-26-3-2 mark.

Molleken will forever be linked with some of the Blades best days under the ownership of the Brodsky family working alongside Rick and then Jack. Jack Brodsky would quickly become a lifetime best friend.

During his first stint with the Blades from 1991 to 1995, Molleken served as the Blades head coach as another one of his lifetime best friends in Daryl Lubiniecki toiled in the role of general manager.

That group of men took the Blades to the WHL Championship Series on two occasions in 1992 and 1994. In both appearances, the Blades fell in a series deciding Game 7 to the dynasty Kamloops Blazers.

The Blazers of that era are still viewed as having hit the ice with some of the best teams ever seen in the history of major junior hockey winning the WHL championship and Memorial Cup as CHL champions in 1992, 1994 and 1995.

Had the Blades been able to best the Blazers in one of those Game 7 encounters in the WHL Final in 1992 or 1994, there could well have been a Memorial Cup championship parade through downtown Saskatoon.

The deep playoff runs and success the Blades were having saw Molleken depart to the professional ranks following the 1994-95 campaign. He ultimately served as head coach of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks for the last part of the 1998-99 season and the first part of the 1999-2000 campaign.

The Regina product returned to the WHL to serve as head coach of his hometown Pats when they hosted the Memorial Cup in the 2000-01 campaign. He departed to the professional ranks again after that season, but came back to the WHL part way through the 2002-03 campaign as general manager of the Moose Jaw Warriors.

Lorne Molleken gives instructions on the Blades bench in Oct. 2012

After the 2002-03 season wrapped up, Molleken return to the professional ranks as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins before Jack Brodsky brought him back to his true WHL home naming Molleken the Blades head coach and general manager for the start of the 2004-05 campaign.

Molleken served as head coach and general manager through to the end of the 2012-13 season after the Blades hosted the Memorial Cup. The Blades were sold from the Brodsky to the Priestner family during the 2013 off-season, and Molleken stayed on for one more campaign just as the general manager with Dave Struch handling the duties of head coach.

Struch was one of Molleken’s former star overage players from the 1991-92 campaign.

During Molleken’s second stint, the Blades topped the WHL’s East Division three times. They finished first overall in the WHL in 2010-11 posting the franchise’s best ever record at 56-13-1-2.

The regular season success didn’t translate into post-season success as Molleken’s second stint was littered with first and second round playoff exits.

Molleken’s combined 14 seasons with the Blades ultimate shows that life can be unfair. He put in a true and honest effort to build a team in Saskatoon that went all the way.

The Blades had teams that were good enough to go all the way in Molleken’s days. With that said, it is hard to win in the WHL, and there are lots of times in the sports world where ultimate victory just doesn’t get achieved.

The Blades with Molleken came incredibly close with those Game 7 WHL Championship Series losses in 1992 and 1994. The frustration was compounded when the Blades weren’t able to return to the WHL Final during Molleken’s second stint with the team.

There were times over the last four seasons Molleken spent with the Blades where fan criticism got extremely loud and sometimes was unfair.

Molleken might have been the most disappointed the ultimate victory never came with the Blades. He would always say he understood the fan disappointment and that not winning the WHL title and a Memorial Cup felt like those missing things.

Molleken had a 539-325-58 regular season record with 23 ties over his career as the Blades head coach. He deserved to enjoy one WHL title and one Memorial Cup win with the Brodsky family along with Lubiniecki.

While navigating all the ups and downs, Molleken always gave solid and accurate post-game interviews win or lose every game that often recognized the fact two teams were out there trying to win a hockey game. He often credited the opponents for what they were able to do to get wins or how well the opponents played when the Blades won.

Lorne Molleken makes a plea from the Blades bench in Oct. 2012.

It is common to run into numerous former Blades players that will say no matter where they went in hockey that Molleken was the best coach they ever had. While Molleken pushed for old school work ethic, accountability and discipline, he combined it with new school caring for his players, which wasn’t always seen in the sport at the start of Molleken’s coaching career.

Molleken was a players’ coach and the players were his boys. You could see that in the excitement he had when he delivered the starting lineups before games.

If you allow him, Molleken can tell numerous stories of the great memories he has of the quality players and people he coached.

The list of players he worked with included the likes of Norm Maracle, Ryan Fujita, Rhett Warrener, Struch, the late Wade Belak, Frank Banham and Andy MacIntyre in his first stint to Devin Setoguchi, Derek Hulak, Braden Holtby, Connor Cox, Darren Dietz and Nelson Nogier in his second stint. That list of names could obviously be much more lengthy.

Molleken always had his players’ backs and would go to old school lengths to ensure they were protected, if the opposition took liberties on them.

That was best shown when Red Deer Rebels right-winger Josh Cowen ran Blades netminder Steven Stanford inside the final minute of Game 2 of a first round playoff series on March 21, 2010 at the SaskTel Centre. When that incident occurred, the contest was already decided as the Blades were up by the 4-0 final score.

On the ensuing faceoff after Stanford got hit, Molleken sent out his five toughest players who went after the Rebels skaters on the ice starting a line brawl right after puck drop. Molleken was ensuring a message was sent that any cheap shots like the one Stanford took weren’t going to be tolerated.

During the brawl, Molleken was getting in a verbal confrontation with the Red Deer coaches. Of course, suspensions galore resulted from the extracurriculars.

Molleken always carried a line of tough guys to protect the team due to the fact he was worried that there were still too many pure old school coaches in the WHL even near the end of his time with the Blades.

If the opponent played straight up, Molleken ensured his team played straight up. While Blades followers often like to talk about the sexy stories like the brawl against the Rebels, the Blades under Molleken usually had quite a bit of skill on their first three lines and could play some fantastic wide open offensive hockey.

After leaving the Blades, Molleken, who sits fourth on the WHL’s career regular season head coaching wins list with 626 victories, worked one more season in the WHL as the head coach of the Vancouver Giants in 2015-16 before leaving the major junior ranks all together. He is still involved in the game serving as the director of coach development of the Prairie Hockey Academy.

While he no longer works for the Blades, Molleken has popped back into the SaskTel Centre every now and then to see the Blades play. When he pops in, Molleken will often be sitting with Jack Brodsky and Lubiniecki sharing stories about the good old days.

Molleken will be viewed as the greatest coach the Blades ever had until a bench boss comes along and oversees the Blades winning their first WHL title and Memorial Cup. Whenever that happens, you can bet Molleken would be the first person that wants to shake that coach’s hand.

Lorne Molleken, right, with Jack Brodsky on March 5, 2013.

As time moves on, Molleken might hold the distinction of being the classiest coach and general manager the Blades ever had. He raised the bar for the franchise in so many ways on and off the ice that it is only fitting the team honours him by raising a builder’s banner to the rafters of their home rink.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com. All photos in this post are courtesy Steve Hiscock/Saskatoon Blades. Stanks’ Sermon passes on a huge thanks to Hiscock for the photos of Molleken.

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