Stay informed with the LNN Daily Newsletter

Lethbridge Hurricanes come from behind to beat the Portland Winterhawks 4-3 in a shootout

Nov 28, 2017 | 8:55 PM

LETHBRIDGE – The Lethbridge Hurricanes fourth straight win might just be their most impressive of the year, coming back from down 3-1 to take down the Portland Winterhawks 4-3 in a shootout.

The Winterhawks flexed their muscles at times in the game, outshooting the Hurricanes 47-24 overall, but Lethbridge kept battling back on route to snapping Portland’s 10 game winning streak.

The first period of play saw the Winterhawks all over the Hurricanes, outshooting the home squad 16-3 but Stuart Skinner stood tall making save after save to keep things scoreless after one.

Powerplays would end up being key in this one, as early in the second period Ilijah Colina opened the scoring on the man-advantage to give the Winterhawks a 1-0 lead.

Just over seven minutes later at 8:18, the Winterhawks would score again on the PP thanks to Henri Jokiharju for a 2-0 lead.

With the shots ballooning against the Hurricanes, it was beginning to look like the Winterhawks were going to run away with it.

But a couple of minutes after going down 2-0, Jordy Bellerive got the Hurricanes on the board extending his five-game point streak to six.

2-1 in favour of Portland is where things sat after two periods of play.

Just over five minutes into the third period Cody Glass, the reigning WHL player of the week, would give the Winterhawks a 3-1 lead with another PP goal.

Portland got themselves into penalty trouble soon after, taking three consecutive minor penalties, which gave the Hurricanes an opportunity to strike and strike they did.

In the dying seconds of the first 5-on-3 PP for the Canes, Zane Franklin buried his ninth goal of the season to cut the deficit to 3-2. 32 seconds later Jordy Bellerive scored his second goal of the night, and 15th of the season, to knot the game at 3-3.

Regulation solved nothing, so the two teams headed to overtime. A goaltender’s duel between Skinner and Portland netminder Cole Kehler kept things tied at three, so next it was off to the shootout.

Jordy Bellerive and Joachim Blichfeld each scored on their teams first shot of the shootout, but then the goaltenders shut things down for eleven straight shooters.

Until the seventh round of the shootout, when Zane Franklin would break the tie and Stuart Skinner turned away a shot from Ilijah Colina to give the Hurricanes the victory.

The win brings the Hurricanes record to 11-12-1-0 on the season, good for second place in the Central Division.

Jordy Bellerive led the way for the Hurricanes in this one, scoring twice in regulation and again in the shootout. Calen Addision added a pair of assists, and Skinner made 44 saves in the win.

Next up for the Hurricanes is three games in three nights this weekend. First up is a game against the Brandon Wheat Kings on Friday, Dec. 1 at the ENMAX Centre, then the following night Lethbridge welcomes the Victoria Royals to town before heading to Edmonton to take on the Oil Kings on Sunday, Dec. 3.