Hurricanes drop opener 5-2 at home against Tigers

But it was Medicine Hat that would strike, Ryan Jevne, picked up a loose puck off a turnover in the Hurricane end and beat starting goaltender Reece Klassen over the glove to make it 1-0 at 1:35.

Klassen made a big stop near the ten-minute mark of the first to keep it at 1-0, but after a string of powerplay chances of their own, the Tigers would score with the man advantage when Elijah Brown buried another Medicine Hat goal to make it 2-0 with six minutes left in the opening frame.

That’s how things were when the 1st period came to an end, shots in the first period favoured Lethbridge 15-10.

There was no scoring in the second, but the teams continued going back and forth with chances.

Again, the Hurricanes had several power play chances but couldn’t beat Tigers goaltender Jordan Hollett.

Shots were 30-18 for Lethbridge after two periods of play, and the ‘Canes were 0/5 on the power play.

The Tigers struck quickly at the beginning of the third period as they had in the first when Gary Haden put one past Klassen for Medicine Hat’s second powerplay goal of the evening to make it 3-0 less than a minute in.

Just past the six-minute mark of the third, Hurricanes defenceman Calen Addison and Tigers forward Dawson Heathcote were mixing it up in front of the net when Heathcote dropped his gloves and popped Addison in the face.

Heathcote was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct, and the Hurricanes powerplay that had struggled all night went to work again.

Lethbridge finally broke through at 10:30 of the third, when captain Jordy Bellerive ripped one past Hollett off a feed from Taylor Ross to make it 3-1.

On the same man advantage, Addison ripped one through a crowd in front and over the shoulder of Hollett to cut the deficit to just 3-2 with seven minutes to go in the game.

The Tigers Ryan Chyzowski was called for slashing a few minutes later and the Hurricanes returned to the man advantage with a chance to tie the game, but again it was the Tigers scoring shorthanded to put the game out of reach. A nice pass by James Hamblin on a two-on-one rush to Tyler Preziuso had Klassen out of position for the easy goal making it 4-2.

The Tigers would bury an empty netter amid from nastiness at the end, for a 5-2 final.

Shots ended up 35-28 for Lethbridge, and the Hurricanes powerplay went 2-for-8 overall.

Captain Jordy Bellerive says while they didn’t play very well, they still put up nearly 40 shots which is encouraging.

“I think we just build off the way we played in the third, bear down on our chances and we’ll be fine.”

Bellerive also said one game’s worth of struggles on the powerplays isn’t a cause for concern yet.

“We haven’t practised our powerplay, obviously Addy and myself were away, so we’re just fortunate that we got a chance to feel it out,” Bellerive stated, adding all of the rust is shaken off now so they can start filling the net.

The Hurricanes will complete a quick turnover, as they’ll be in Medicine Hat on Saturday, Sept. 22, for the back half of the home-and-home series.

“We’re going to have to be better, they’re going to be excited to be back in their rink,” Kisio continued. “So, we’ve got a big task at hand and we’re going to have to be a much better hockey team tomorrow.”

Despite the loss, both Kisio and Bellerive spoke about how emotional the pre-game ceremony was, and how important it was to have Vandervlis in the building.

“I think I’ll be playing for him for the rest of my life, after what we’ve been through. I was pretty happy to get one in the first game with him in the building, that was pretty special for myself and I’m sure he feels the same way,” Bellerive said.

by Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Hurricanes drop opener 5-2 at home against Tigers

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