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Written by Dale Woodard
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Wednesday, February 24 2010, 11:22 PM |
The Lethbridge Hurricanes were 19.6 seconds away from takeoff to their destination, Two Points Land, as they hosted the Kelowna Rockets in Western Hockey League action Wednesday night at the Enmax Centre.
Turns out their flight was merely delayed as the Rockets scored the with 19.6 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 2-2 before ’Canes netminder Linden Rowat capped off a stellar outing by stopping Rocket Brett Bulmer in the fifth round of the shootout as Lethbridge snagged a 3-2 shootout win.
The win not only gives the Hurricanes the extra point, it snaps a six-game winless skid that moves Lethbridge to 18-39-4-3.
“We're all ecstatic,” said Rowat, who stopped 37 of 39 shots in the win. “It's been long overdue, we stopped the bleeding. Kelowna is a great team. We had a tight game against them last time in their barn. But coming into our barn where we haven't had much success we knew we had to be ready for the high-power Rockets.”
Hurricanes hit the scoresheet first when Brody Sutter cashed in on a rebound from close in for his fourth goal of the season and a 1-0 lead with 3:47 left in the first period.
The Rockets pulled even 6:13 into the second when Geordie Wudrick sent a bullet past Rowat.
The Hurricanes nearly pulled ahead but Philip Tot was stopped on breakaway by Rockets netminder Adam Brown. The chances kept coming for the ’Canes as Mitch Maxwell jumped on a rebound in front of the Kelowna net while on the man advantage, but was unable to get the shot past Brown, prompting the Lethbridge forward to smack his stick off the glass in frustration.
But Lethbridge didn't miss on their next chance as Austin Fyten struck for his 18th goal of the season to hand the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead with 6:19 left in the second.
Kelowna pulled Brown with 1:18 to go and kept up the furious late-game pressure. The Rockets thought they had the game-tying goal with 33.1 seconds remaining, but the goal was waved off when it was ruled the net had been knocked loose.
But in the dying seconds the Rockets tied it when Mitchell Callahan slammed home a close-in feed from Brandon McMillan to send the game to overtime.
After a scoreless overtime, the teams moved to the shootout. And after Fyten and Carter Bancks put Lethbridge up 2-1 in the shutout, Rowat made the game-winning stop.
“I wasn't very happy with the first goal, he stuck it between my legs,” said Rowat. “But I let it go, got ready for the next shot and was patient. Bancks came up huge.”
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