Hurricanes End Regular Season with Loss in Red Deer
Red Deer, AB – The Lethbridge Hurricanes ended the 2022-2023 regular season on Saturday with a 5-1 loss to the Red Deer Rebels at Peavey Mart Centrium.
Lethbridge – like Red Deer on Friday – rested a handful of players in the contest as Miguel Marques, Jett Jones, Logan Wormald, Blake Swetlikoff and Cole Shepard were all left out of the lineup. With five regulars out, the Hurricanes inserted affiliate players Landen Ward and Luke Cozens who made their Western Hockey League debuts while 15-year-old goaltender Koen Cleaver made his first WHL start in the game. It was a busy first period for Cleaver who saw a whopping 19-shots in the opening frame. Red Deer peppered the young netminder who made his best save on a cross-crease chance for Kalan Lind on a five-on-three-man advantage. Red Deer outshot Lethbridge 19-1 in the first period.
The Rebels broke the scoreless tie early in the second period as Talon Brigley scored a shorthanded goal on a two-on-one at the 2:41 mark ripping one over the shoulder of Cleaver to make it 1-0 Red Deer. At the 9:27 mark, the Rebels struck again as Christoffer Sedoff finished a chance on another odd-man rush for Red Deer to make it a 2-0 game; Kalan Lind earned the lone helper on the goal. Just over three minutes later, the Rebels struck again as Hunter Mayo buried his 18th goal of the season on yet another two-on-one rush as he snapped one over the glove of Cleaver to make it 3-0. Before the end of the period, the Rebels added a power play goal when Frantisek Formanek wired home his 13th goal in his 99th career game to make it a 4-0 Red Deer lead after forty minutes of play. The Hurricanes were outshot 14-8 in the middle frame and 33-9 through two periods.
In the third period, the Hurricanes got on the board snapping the Kyle Kelsey shutout bid as Tyson Zimmer scored his 19th goal of the season tapping in a centering pass from Tristan Zandee at the 5:27 mark; Anton Astashevich earned the second assist. Just over two-and-a-half minutes later, the Rebels answered back as Lind slipped one through the legs of Cleaver to make it a 5-1 game; Kai Uchacz and Quentin Bourne were credited with the assists. The two teams combined for a pair of chances in the dying minutes but both Kelsey and Cleaver turned aside the opportunities as Red Deer skated to the 5-1 victory.
The Rebels outshot the Hurricanes 6-3 in the third period and 39-12 in the game. Lethbridge went 0/4 on the power play while Red Deer was 1/5 with the extra man.
Three stars of the game were the Rebels overagers:
1) Rebels – #18 Jace Isley
2) Rebels – #4 Christoffer Sedoff
3) Rebels – #14 Ben King
The loss for the Hurricanes ends the regular season with a road record of 15-16-2-1 while ending the 2022-2023 campaign with an overall record of 36-26-3-3 on the season. The ‘Canes end the season series with the Rebels with a 2-3-1-0 record in the six game season series.
Lethbridge will open the 2023 WHL Playoffs presented by Stringam Law on Friday, March 31st with Game 1 of their first-round best-of-seven series with the Moose Jaw Warriors.
Individual playoff tickets go on sale on Tuesday, March 28th at 10:00am and can be purchased by visiting the ENMAX Centre Ticket Centre, the Yates Memorial Theatre Ticket Centre, by calling 403-329-SEAT (7328) or online at www.lethbridgehurricanes.com.
