By Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Hurricanes win third game in three nights thanks to a Nolan Jones overtime goal against Rebels

Dec 2, 2018 | 8:38 PM

LETHBRIDGE – If the Lethbridge Hurricanes 5-4 overtime victory on Sunday, Dec. 2 over the Red Deer Rebels is any indication the battle to crown the Central Division champions in 2018-19 is going to go wire to wire.

Nolan Jones’ second goal of the season capped off a back and forth game that saw Lethbridge and Red Deer trade the lead in the 3rd period before a late Rebels goal forced extra time.

Things started off well for the home side, as the Hurricanes took a 1-0 lead on the Rebels early in the first period when Taylor Ross scored on a deflection of a Danila Palivko point shot. The Hurricanes would keep it going later in the 1st period, thanks to a power-play goal from Ross as he took a fanned shot by Nick Henry and banked it past Rebels goaltender Ethan Anders.

Lethbridge took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission, and outshoot Red Deer 16-13 as well in the opening frame. Then early in the 2nd period, after the Hurricanes killed off a penalty, the Rebels rode the momentum as Chris Douglas beat Hurricanes netminder Carl Tetachuk to cut the Lethbridge lead to 2-1 just past the seven-minute mark. That was it for the scoring in the middle frame, but early in the 3rd period again the Rebels would strike as Zak Smith tied the game 2-2.

With Brandon Hagel in the box for hooking, Red Deer went ahead 3-2 thanks to a short-handed goal by former Hurricane and newly acquired Rebel Brett Davis on a great individual effort. The game was far from over, as with the momentum swinging back and forth, Dylan Cozens knotted the game up at 3-3 with 2:26 to go in the 3rd. Lethbridge kept pushing, and Ross capped off the hat trick with just 1:17 to play giving the Hurricanes a 4-3 lead.

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The Rebels tied it up 4-4 with 18 seconds remaining, thanks to Davis’ second of the game before Jones won it in overtime.

Leading the way offensively on top of Ross were Dylan Cozens with a goal and an assist and Jake Elmer with three assists. Rookie Carl Tetachuk gave Head Coach Brent Kisio another quality start, making 28 saves for his fifth win of the season.

After the weekend, Lethbridge now boasts a record of 14-8-3-2 in second place in the Central, and they’re just three points back of Red Deer with a game in hand. Now the Hurricanes get ready to hit the road, as they’ll be in Cranbrook on Wednesday, Dec. 5, to play the Kootenay Ice before heading south of the border to take on Portland and Tri-City on the weekend.