(Photo: WHL on YouTube)

By Christian Oldale

Smith dazzles with 33 saves, Hurricanes down Broncos 3-1

Oct 31, 2024 | 9:08 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – It was a spectacular showcase of goaltending for the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Wednesday, October 30 as they took down the Swift Current Broncos 3-1.

The game was a rematch of the Friday before, when the Hurricanes traveled to Swift Current but fell 4-1.

In the first period, the Hurricanes offensive attack came out to a very hot start. At the 3:43 mark of the opening frame, Brayden Edwards fed the puck across the slot on a 2-on-1, and Logan Wormald ripped it past Reid Dyck for his seventh goal of the season to make it 1-0. Miguel Marques got credit for the second assist.

Just eight seconds later following the faceoff, Leo Braillard took the pass from Hayden Pakkala, drove to the net and managed to create a rebound, where Luke Cozens was there to bury it for his first goal of the 2024-25 campaign.

Later in the period, after killing off a hooking penalty to Wormald, the Hurricanes got themselves back on the scoreboard again.

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13:18 into the first, Marques took a short pass from Wormald entering the Broncos zone, and maneuvered around two defencemen in the slot before wiring a wrister past Dyck to make it 3-0. The goal was Marques’ fifth of the year, and extended his point streak to six games, in which he has 13 points. Wormald and Edwards got assists on the goal.

Despite the dominance on the scoresheet, the Broncos managed to outshoot Lethbridge 18-9 in the opening frame, but could not put one past Brady Smith.

In the second period both the Hurricanes and Broncos found themselves in some penalty trouble, but the Broncos killed off all three they had, while Lethbridge killed off three of four.

Late in the frame, the Broncos managed to break the Hurricanes shutout when Luke Mistelbacher unloaded a one-timer from the faceoff circle off a pass from Rylan Gould to cut the deficit to two. However, that would be it for scoring for the rest of the game, as Brady Smith stopped nine out of 10 shots for another excellent period.

In the third, the Hurricanes were outshot for the third consecutive period 6-2, but Smith continued his excellent game, denying Gould on a prime scoring chance from the slot. The Canes held on to win 3-1 despite being outshot 34-16 in the game.

As a result, Smith was named first star for his dominant performance. Mistelbacher was given second star honours, while Cozens was named third star.

The Hurricanes will look to continue their stretch of home dominance with a game on Friday, November 1 against the Calgary Hitmen.

READ MORE: Lethbridge News Now.

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