Hurricanes snap losing streak, beat Warriors 5-3

In the first period, the Hurricanes dominated on the shot sheet, peppering 16 shots on former Cane Brady Smith, but could not get a puck past him.

At the 16:15 mark of the period, the Hurricanes found themselves on a two-man advantage after a pair of penalties to Moose Jaw. However, Rylan Kovacevic sprung a breakaway and fired it past Unger to make it 1-0 for the Warriors.

Shortly after, amidst a scramble in front of the net, Hurricanes forward Hayden Pakkala jammed the puck past a sprawled out Smith for what officials initially called a goal. After a lengthy review, however, the goal was waved off as Pakkala’s stick had pushed Smith’s pad into the net.

In the second, the Hurricanes finally found the scoresheet early in the period. 2:38 in, Carsen Adair fed Trae Johnson a pass in front of the net, who one-touch passed it back to Pakkala, who fired his fifth goal of the season past Smith to tie the game at one goal apiece.

Despite the momentum, the Hurricanes’ lead would not last long, with Pavel McKenzie firing a wicked wrist hot over Unger’s shoulder just 59 seconds later to reclaim the lead.

Later in the period, the Hurricanes got another chance on the powerplay, and they capitalized. Noah Chadwick took a feed from Miguel Marques at the blue line and fired a shot towards the net, beating a screened Brady Smith to tie the game at two apiece. Brayden Edwards got the other assist on the Hurricanes captain’s sixth goal of the season. The goal also marked Chadwick’s 100th point in his WHL career.

In the final frame, after half a period of no score, the Hurricanes found themselves a man down after a Gavin Lesiuk slashing penalty. The Warriors capitalized on the man advantage, with Lynden Lakovic wiring a wrist shot past Unger to retake his team’s lead.

However, from then on out, the scoresheet belonged to the Hurricanes. With a little under five and a half minutes left, Edwards took the puck on the boards and fed a pass across the slot to Wormald, who one-timed the puck past Smith to tie it up. The goal was Wormald’s team-leading 14th of the season, and was assisted by Edwards and Will Sharpe.

Nearing the end of the game, Wormald scored again to play hero for his team, taking the puck at the faceoff circle and once again burying it again in the Warriors net to make it 4-3.

In the literal last second of the game, Yager scored an empty net goal to notch his first as a Hurricane, icing the game at 5-3 to snap the Hurricanes losing streak.

In addition to the milestones for Chadwick, Yager and Unger, the team also recognized defenceman Logan McCutcheon, who had played his 250th game with the team on November 16.

For his two goal effort, Wormald was named the first star of the game. Brady Smith took second star honours for stopping 34 of 38 shots against his old team, while Edwards’ two assists got him the third star.

With the win, the Hurricanes leapfrogged the Oil Kings to move into fourth in the Central Division, but sit only three points behind the first place Medicine Hat Tigers.

They will look to make up more ground when they take on the Tigers on Friday, December 4 in the Toques and Teddy Toss game at the VisitLethbridge.com Arena. Puck drop will be at 7:00.

READ MORE: Lethbridge News Now.

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by Christian Oldale

Hurricanes snap losing streak, beat Warriors 5-3

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