The Wheat Kings were looking for a bounce-back effort against the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Unfortunately, they had a hard time breaking down the Hurricanes’ stifling defensive structure.
Carson Bjarnason stopped 30 of 32 shots he faced, but the Hurricanes surrendered almost nothing despite a 35-shot effort. They shut out the Wheat Kings 3-0, blanking them for the first time all season.
“I thought it was pretty sleepy for 60 (minutes) to be honest today, and that was disappointing,” said head coach and GM Marty Murray. “We had a good crowd and we needed a big effort. That’s a team that works hard, and we didn’t match their intensity and work ethic from the start and we kind of got what we deserved.”
A gritty goal and a bit of a fortunate bounce got the Hurricanes out to the early lead. Brayden Edwards flung the puck at the net, and as Logan Wormald drove the net he and Quinn Mantei got tangled up and fell down. The puck bounced off Wormald and in to put the Hurricanes up 1-0.
The next goal from the Hurricanes was much prettier. Kash Andresen won a battle on the wall and fed it over to their captain, Noah Chadwick, who rifled a shot to the top corner from the left circle to stretch the lead to two.
All third period long, the Wheat Kings pressed and traded chances with Lethbridge, but nothing got through either way. Though the Wheat Kings piled up 17 shots, it was the hurricanes who got the last laugh, as Miguel Marques salted the game away with an empty netter.
The first regulation loss for the Wheat Kings since October 12 drops them to 9-5-2-1 on the season. They’ll face the Regina Pats in a double-header on home ice next weekend, starting on Friday night.
