Lethbridge blows away Saskatoon in third
period
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| Joe Arntsen had a monster night for the Hurricanes. |
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 12th 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.
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| Justin Hall had three assists for the Hurricanes. |
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.
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| Alex Thacker had three assists for the Hurricanes. |
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