The Lethbridge Hurricanes started their Saturday game flat footed and weren’t able to recover from an early first-period deficit, losing 5-1 to the Prince Albert Raiders.
The Raiders scored on their first shot of the game, 36 seconds in, and twice more before the three-minute mark virtually sealing the deal right then. Goalie Linden Rowat was pulled after his short-lived, two-save performance.
Right after the ensuing faceoff, Lethbridge native Cason Machacek tried to energize the ‘Canes by dropping the gloves with Raiders’ captain Dustin Cameron.
The hometown fans were given some optimism in the second when rookie Mitch Maxwell’s scored his team-leading 24th goal in the dying seconds. After the ensuing faceoff, everyone on the ice dropped the gloves, including ‘Canes goalie Brandon Anderson, who crossed centre ice to challenge the unwilling Raiders goalie Jamie Tucker.
“All year it’s been real bad. They took some cheap shots at our guys when we were in (Prince Albert) at the end of the game and didn’t back it up so tonight we came out to prove that we’re going to stick up for our guys,” said Maxwell.
However, the spark never carried over to the third period as the ‘Canes couldn’t provide any offence.
“When you can’t score goals like we can’t, it’s pretty much game over,” said an unimpressed Hurricanes head coach Rich Preston.
“We’ve been trying everything, we went to the net and tried to shoot pucks as much as we can. Give credit where credit’s due I guess, Tucker played pretty good tonight but it’s not just shoot to shoot, it’s shoot to score,” Maxwell said.
Meanwhile, the Prince Albert Raiders are still very much in the playoff picture, holding on to the eighth and final playoff spot with the win.
“For us it’s a real important game. We’re in a dogfight here for our playoff lives,” said Raiders’ head coach Bruno Campese.