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Hurricanes rebound with win over Wheat Kings

Feb 24, 2017 | 10:13 PM

LETHBRIDGE – Despite a late game scare that turned a comfortable lead into a nail-biter, the Hurricanes held on for a 4-3 bounce-back win over the Brandon Wheat Kings Friday night (Feb. 24).

Coming off a 3-1 loss to Moose Jaw earlier in the week, the Canes got on the board early, with Giorgio Estephan scoring his 27th of the season just over a minute into play.

Brandon’s highly touted centre, Nolan Patrick, responded four minutes later to even things up on the power play, only to have the home team pull ahead again two minutes after that, with a marker from Zak Zborosky. Matt Alfaro, who joined Zborosky in the trade from Kootenay to Lethbridge, added a pair of his own – one in the first period and another in the third – to give the Hurricanes a solid lead.

And then things got a little scary.

Getting back on the power play, the Wheat Kings would pull to within two with six minutes left. Three minutes after that, they added another with the man advantage, giving the Hurricanes a suddenly precarious one goal edge with 2:32 left to play.

That’s where the bleeding stopped though, as Lethbridge netminder Stuart Skinner shut the door and held on for the win – his 30th of the season, which has him tied for third in the WHL in that category.

The Hurricanes now boast a 37-17-4-3 record with 11 games left on the schedule and a playoff spot already secured. More impressively, with the win, they now have just two regulation losses in their last 21 games. It also has them just six points shy of the Central Division leading Medicine Hat Tigers.

They’ll kick off a five-game road trip Saturday (Feb. 25) in Cranbrook against the Kootenay Ice, a team that’s limping to the end of the season in last place in the league.