Hurricane heartbreak: Lethbridge’s season over following 4-2 loss in Game 7 against Hitmen

Later on in the 1st period, following an unfortunate bounce for Lethbridge at the Hurricane blue line, Riley Fiddler-Schultz walked in on a partial 2-on-1 and made no mistake ripping one over the blocker of Tetachuk to increase the Hitmen lead to 2-0 at 15:23.

Less than a minute later the Hurricanes got turned around in their zone, and that allowed Focht to get loose in front and thanks to a great pass by Ty Prokop it was 3-0 for Calgary just like that.

After the 1st period, on top of their lead, the Hitmen were also ahead on the shot clock 17-10.

But the Hurricanes didn’t just roll over.

At 2:59, an unlikely hero in Zach Cox stepped up for the Hurricanes with an absolute snipe blocker side under the bar past Hitmen goaltender Jack McNaughton to cut the Calgary lead to 3-1.

Ten minutes later, on a delayed penalty call, the Hurricanes made the most of the extra attacker when Hurricanes captain Jordy Bellerive threaded the needle through a couple of players right onto the tape of Alex Cotton who blew it by McNaughton to make it 3-2.

Just before the buzzer, Tetachuk mad a big save to keep the deficit at only a single goal heading into the 3rd period.

In the 3rd, the Hurricanes would put on serious pressure right from the drop of the puck, but the Hitmen wouldn’t relent despite a few close calls.

Eventually, the final minute of play rolled around, and after some Lethbridge chances, Hitmen captain Mark Kastelic sealed the deal into an empty net for the 4-2 final.

Final shots finished dead even at 27 apiece. Calgary went 1-for-4 on the powerplay while Lethbridge finished 0-for-2.

Hurricanes Head Coach Brent Kisio was understandably disappointed after the game but admitted that Calgary was the better team all series long.

“Their D were making harder plays, and I thought they were battling harder on their forecheck and putting pucks on net. They had a little more compete.”

Kisio was also blunt about what he thought about having to play at Nicholas Sheran Arena instead of the ENMAX Centre, though with the caveat that it was no excuse.

“It was terrible, but hey, both teams had to play, and that’s the main thing,” he continued. “It was not WHL hockey out there, but like I said there were two teams on the ice, it became a battle, and their guys battled harder.”

Captain Jordy Bellerive says it was a disappointing finish to the season.

“They pushed early and credit to them; they did that all series and that’s something this organization can learn from this experience.”

Bellerive believes his team can take some solace in that they were able to push back when they fell behind during the series, though that ended up being their downfall.

“We did everything we could tonight, but at the end of the day we didn’t come out ready, and it showed in the end.”

For the Hitmen, they’ll now move on to take on the Edmonton Oil Kings in the second round of the WHL playoffs.

by Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Hurricane heartbreak: Lethbridge’s season over following 4-2 loss in Game 7 against Hitmen

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