By Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Lethbridge Hurricanes season comes to an end following 5-1 loss to Swift Current Broncos in Game 6

Apr 30, 2018 | 11:07 PM

LETHBRIDGE – When it comes to the 2017-18 Western Hockey League season, we can declare a winner in the January trade between the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Swift Current Broncos, after the Broncos defeated the Hurricanes 5-1 in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final on Monday, April 30 to eliminate them from the playoffs. 

The Hurricanes were done in by three Bronco goals in just over a minute and a half to start the second period, but when it comes to next season, the Hurricanes will have a chance to change the perception behind that trade because they could return all but three players next year. 

In the first period of Game 6, the Hurricanes came out tentative, but a couple of early power plays helped get them and the crowd into the game. 

At 16:36 of the first, Calen Addison would bury his 7th of the postseason to give his team a 1-0 lead.

That 1-0 score would hold up after twenty minutes and the Hurricanes outshot the Broncos 20-2, but former Hurricane goaltender Stuart Skinner stood on his head. 

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The second is where things completely unravelled for Lethbridge. 

First Broncos forward Matteo Gennaro floated up high with the puck in the Hurricanes zone at 6:33 and fired a shot over the shoulder of Flodell to tie the game at 1-1. 

Then 29 seconds later Broncos forward Aleksi Heponiemi stole the puck away from Hurricanes defenceman Igor Merezhko and beat Flodell to make it 2-1. 

A hooking penalty to Swift Current looked like it might disrupt their momentum, but on the Hurricanes powerplay, Beck Malenstyne stole the puck and puck a great move on Flodell to beat him for the short-handed marker that made it 3-1 for the Broncos.

Defenceman Calen Addison said he felt the Hurricanes let their game get away from them.

“When we move our feet, work them down low and come with speed up the ice is where we’re best. At times this series we went away from that and they capitalized tonight,” Addison stated. 

Before the buzzer sounded to end the second period, Lethbridge had opportunities on the power play, but couldn’t cash.

Just over two minutes into the third, former Hurricanes captain Giorgio Estephan put the game out of reach with a power-play goal to make it 4-1 before Malenstyn buried his second goal of the game into an empty net for the 5-1 final. 

After the game, Estephan admitted it was a gruelling series against his former team. 

“You don’t see a lot of friends out there on the ice. They want to beat you, and you want to beat them. That’s the way hockey works, it’s a competitive sport and we’re competitive players. They showed a lot of class to me in the [handshake] lineups, and I’m grateful for the friendships I made with guys over there,” Estephan said.  

Hurricanes Head Coach Brent Kisio says the way the series ended was tough for his team. 

“We’re proud of our group, they played hard, but Swift Current is a very good team and I thought they were the better team tonight,” Kisio said. 

It’s never a good feeling to be eliminated from the playoffs, but in reflecting on the run Kisio says he’s happy with how hard his team competed until the end. 

“We did a lot of good things this playoff, there’s a lot of things for this organization to build off of but give Swift Current credit,” Kisio continued. “They’ve got one hell of a hockey team, they’re a classy organization and incredibly well coached.”

As far as the future, Kisio believes the best days for this team are ahead. 

“We’re going to win a championship at some point. Obviously, we thought we had a pretty good chance this year, it didn’t turn out that way and that’s unfortunate, but there’s definitely lots of positives to build off of going forward.”

Hurricanes captain Jordy Bellerive believes this playoff run will be massive moving forward for all of the young players on Lethbridge. 

“The young guys really stepped up for us this year. I mean, Barlage, Cozens, Addison, and other guys all showed what they could do in the playoffs and had huge performances. I think moving forward it’s only going to get better for this organization and that’s been the trend for the last three years,” Bellerive said, adding it’s a credit to the coaching and management staffs for getting guys who want to win and get better.