Hurricanes 11 Rebels 2
It wasn’t pretty.
The Lethbridge Hurricanes entered the Centrium Saturday and laid a good ol’ fashioned beat down on the Red Deer Rebels.
Lethbridge scored early and often in the opening frame, shelling Rebels goalie Ethan Anders for three goals on five shots. Byron Fancy came in for Anders and didn’t fare much better, allowing two goals on 11 shots.
Fancy finished the night with seven goals allowed on 14 shots, while Anders let in four goals on 23 shots in 32:29 of action.
The 11-2 blowout came on the strength of the Hurricanes top line, as Dylan Cozens, D-Jay Jerome and Oliver Okuliar combined for nine points and defenceman Calen Addison added a hit trick for good measure.
“What do you say?” quipped Rebels GM/ coach Brent Sutter.
“Right from our goaltending on out. We had three or four goals against us on the first 11 or 12 shots. Fighting from behind all night. Mistakes, our effort, especially in the second period wasn’t good. We just can’t hold our focus. It’s tough because we have a young team and when you get down so quickly in a game… we have a lot of work to do.”
The loss was the most lopsided since March 17, 2007, when the Hurricanes knocked off Red Deer 11-1.
Hurricanes’ Koletrane Wilson opened the scoring on a solo effort just 3:20 into the contest and it was downhill from there for the home side.
Noah Boyko notched his seventh of the year, former Rebel Jerome scored his first of the night with 3:58 left in the frame.
Lethbridge scored twice in the final minute of the period, as Cozens buried his 17th and Jerome notched his second of the night with 15 seconds left in the period.
It was 5-0 after 20 minutes with the shots 15-14 for Lethbridge.
Addison extended the advantage midway through the second, with a rocket of a wrist shot eight seconds into a power play. He added another power play marker in the second, this time a slap shot high blocker past Fancy.
Cam Hausinger scored for the Rebels late in the second and Ethan Sakowich added one late in the game late in the third.
Rebels defenceman Christoffer Sedoff was assessed a five-minute major for boarding midway through the third and was ejected from the game.
Hurricanes goalie Bryan Thompson stopped 26 shots in the victory.
Coward signed
Friday, the Rebels inked 16-year-old netminder Chase Coward to a standard player agreement. Coward, a Swift Current native has godly numbers in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA League with the Moose Jaw Warriors, posting an 11-6-1-0 record, with a 1.83 goals-against average and .940 save percentage. He was originally listed by the Rebels a year ago.
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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