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Written by Dale Woodard
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Sunday, March 15 2009, 11:28 PM |
Not outshot, just out-chanced.
Just outscored. By a 6-2 margin.
Playing in a meaningless game to the WHL standings, the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Calgary Hitmen exchanged opportunity for opportunity as the teams rounded out their Western Hockey League regular season schedules Sunday night at the Enmax Centre.
But while the shots and chances were close on both sides, it was the Hitmen who found a little more finish on their chances, opening up a 4-2 lead in the late stages of the third.
“We talked about our specialty team rising to the challenge,” said Hurricanes head coach Mike Dyck, whose team went two-for-five on the man advantage, both on tallies from Colton Sceviour. “For the first period I thought our penalty kill was very good and our penalty kill was good. For us to kill off a five-on-three early gave us a chance.”
“In the second period our power play had to come out with the same kind of urgency and it didn’t. It created a turnover and they got a shorthanded goal and they found a way to score a power-play goal.”
Lethbridge’s penalty kill was put to the test early when the hosts found themselves down two men.
They managed to kill off the infractions, but the Hitmen were still first on the board when Brandon Kozun smacked a shot off the right wing past Lethbridge goalie Michael Tadjdeh midway through the first.
Lethbridge was afforded a five-on-three of their own with Hitmen Joel Broda and Alex Plante each cooling their heels for interference and the hosts took advantage as Colton Sceviour wristed a shot past Calgary netminder Michael Snider to tie things up at 1-1 with 5:53 left in the first.
The Hitmen went back on the power play and this time took advantage when Kris Foucault tallied a little under three minutes left in the first for a 2-1 lead.
But the man advantage goal-swapping wasn’t over yet as Sceviour hit for his second of the night and 29th of the season for a 2-2 deadlock after 20 minutes.
“They played their top lineup and we played our top lineup,” said Sceviour. “We haven’t beaten them all year and we definitely wanted to get that and get some confidence going into the playoffs. We wanted to get a good game together. We played really well against Kootenay (Friday) and we followed it up (Saturday) with a not-so-hot effort all around.”
The power-play goal trend continued early in the second when Calgary’s Joel Broda struck for his 53rd of the season to hand the Hitmen a 3-2 lead 1:26 into the second period.
The Hitmen’s specialty teams continued to click when Carson McMillan capitalized on a Lethbridge turnover and sniped a shorthanded marker past Tadjdeh for a 4-2 lead 8:48 into the second.
“Calgary kept coming at us the whole game, especially on their specialty teams,” said Zach Boychuk, who along with Kyle Beach assisted on both of Sceviour’s goals.
The ‘Canes outshot the Hitmen 13-8 in the final, but it was Calgary that added another pair of tallies as Paul Postma and Brett Sonne rounded out the scoring.
“In the third I think there was about 10 minutes where we gave them two shots,” said Scevoiur. “We had some chances. At the end of the second period if I bury that netter instead of bumbling it, it’s a 4-3 game going into the third period and a completely different outlook.”
Wrapping up a home-and-home series with the Kootenay Ice Friday and Saturday, it had been a long two days prior to Sunday’s contest for Lethbridge.
Not only was starting netminder Juha Metsola carted off the ice on a stretcher after a goal-crease collision in Saturday’s tilt, the team’s bus broke down, making for a much later-than-usual return to Lethbridge.
“We knew we were excited to play this game in the sense that we had the number one team coming in here,” said Dyck. “We wanted to finish off the weekend right. We had a long day (Saturday). It wasn’t the kind of day you would look forward to, from losing your goaltender to your bus breaking down and getting in at 7 a.m. We had to face a few things coming in today. We gave our ourselves a chance to win, but we got outscored.”
The jury is still out on whether Metsola will be ready to go when the team kicks off their opening round playoff series against the Saskatoon Blades Friday in Saskatoon.
“Anytime you get carried off on a stretcher it’s not good,” said Dyck. “But he rode the bus with us back and I think he’ll be OK. It’s just if he’s going to be OK and ready to roll for Games 1 and 2.”
The post season tuneup game behind them, the Hurricanes now face their attention to the Blades.
“I think for both teams it didn’t mean much in the standings,” said Boychuk of Sunday’s game. “But it was a big test for us going into the playoffs to keep the momentum going and knowing this could be a potential second-round matchup.”
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