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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