The Lethbridge Hurricanes are in a (0-2) series hole heading back to Lethbridge in their best of seven Eastern Conference Final series with the Swift Current Broncos. Saturday night the Broncos edged the Hurricanes 4-3 in overtime to take game two and maintain home-ice advantage.
“It was another good hockey game,” Hurricanes Head Coach Brent Kisio said. “I thought we had a little bit of a slow start and weren’t moving our feet, but I think in the second, third period and OT we found our feet and we played a good hockey game.”
The Hurricanes might have won game two if it wasn’t for a spectacular performance from their former Captain Giorgio Estephan.
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Estephan scored the first two goals of the game to give the Broncos a 2-0 lead through twenty minutes.
Facing a two goal deficit for the second straight game the Hurricanes roared back in the second period. The team received goals from Jordy Bellerive, Dylan Cozens and Jadon Joseph in the middle frame to go up 3-2 heading into the final period.
In the third period Swift Current would tie the game when Aleksi Heponiemi beat Logan Flodell with a wrist shot on the power play.
Nothing was solved in regulation and the two teams went to overtime. In the extra session the Hurricanes had the first chance to win it, when Calen Addison worked his way in on an end-to-end rush, but hit the post on his shot attempt.
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Midway through OT Estephan would send Broncos fans into a frenzy when he deflected a Sahvan Khaira pass past Flodell to give Swift Current the 4-3 win.
“They made a good play,” Kisio said. “They won the draw and ran some big interference on our guy and it opened up a lot of things for them.”
Hurricanes fans of course, know Estephan’s playoff prowess well. The Edmonton native collected 24 points in 18 post-season games with the ‘Canes last year.
Estephan drove the nail in Saturday night, but it’s not as though the Hurricanes didn’t play well.
For the second straight game the ‘Canes had a strong road performance outshooting the Broncos 39-33 in the game.
“We just need to do a lot of the same,” Kisio said. “We’re coming home and if we keep doing what we’re doing we are going to have success at home. I mean, they’re a really good hockey club, but that’s two games where we probably outplayed them.”
Trailing 2-0 in the series, the Hurricanes travel back to Lethbridge with a massive game upcoming on home-ice.
The puck is set to drop on game three Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. at the Enmax Centre.
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