Lethbridge Lions vs. Vancouver Whalers
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Can Lethbridge right the ship after early-season struggles, or will Vancouver redeem their opening night loss to Lethbridge and continue their strong opening to this years campaign? Minding the Lions net will be rookie goaltender Nolan McMahon, while between the pipes for Vancouver will be Kasperi Braulin.

First Period: The contest started off with a strong surge by Vancouver, as they hemmed the Lions into their own zone, forcing goaltender Nolan McMahon to stand tall, he stopped 4 back to back Vancouver shots early to keep the game knotted at 0 apiece. About 5 minutes into the game Lions forward Liam Hutchinson took a cross-checking minor which gave the Vancouver powerplay and early opportunity to strike. The Lions penalty kill, however, was up to the task. Each team would take another penalty during the first period including Liam Hutchinson taking another trip to the box for slashing at 11:38. However the forward would redeem himself later in the period after a scramble in front of the Whalers net, the puck found Hutchinson and he buried it for his first of the season (1-0 Lethbridge). A little less than a minute later Lions top-line right wing Boruvka Banananak was knocked off the puck by Jean-Paul Boivin. But showing no quit Banananak took a feed from Hugh Jazz and rifled a shot past Braulin to put the Lions up by 2 (2-0 Lethbridge). Despite getting outplayed and outshot 6-11 the Lions emerge from the period up 2-0.

Second Period: The second period was relatively low event compared to the first. The Whalers continued to outplay the Lions but a lack of finish and disciplinary problems plagued the Whalers as they took 3 penalties in the period compared to the Lions 1. The combination of a dismal powerplay performance by Lethbridge and strong penalty killing by Vancouver helped them stay in the game as the Lions lodged only 3 shots on nearly 5 minutes of powerplay time in the second. Vancouver was only kept off the board by the incredible performance of goalie Nolan McMahon. Vancouver exploited the inexperience on the Lethbridge blue line to pound 13 shots on McMahon, but the rookie swiss phenom stopped them all to preserve the lead.

Third Period: The third period was a reverse story of the first and second for these two teams. While Vancouver had outplayed Lethbridge in the first two periods only to be stifled by strong goaltending and missed opportunities, their luck would come around in the third. After killing off the remaining time of a carry over a penalty from the second and an early hooking minor, it was the Whalers turn to strike. Just after 5 minutes of the period, Vancouver had a flurry of shots which culminated in Francois Breton firing one off the pad of McMahon, he would get his own rebound and record his first tally of the season(2-1 Lethbridge). Less than 4 minutes later, Bobby Betcalf would do a very similar trick, after putting his first shot wide of the net he tidied up his own rebound to even the score (2-2). Betcalf continues his red hot scoring pace potting his 5th goal in 7 contests. Not to go down easy Lethbridge responded quickly with Delver Ferguson notching his third goal of the season and finally making the Lethbridge powerplay show results.(3-2 Lethbridge). Lethbridge looked to put the defensive clamps on the game only allowing 1 shot in the next 9 minutes of game time. Kasperi Braulin was pulled for the extra attacker with 1 minute to play in the game. After an extended stay in the Lethbridge zone, defenseman Kaspars Claude winded up a slapshot from the point and rocketed one past McMahon with 17 seconds to play, sending the game to overtime (3-3).

Overtime: The two teams were clearly worn out in overtime and it showed with sloppy play. The only shot on net was a dangerous shot from Hugh Jazz which was deflected on net by Luca Veccelli. Kasperi Braulin tracked it beautifully and we remained tied going to the shootout.

Shootout: Adam Foley tried to slide a shot 5 hole but Braulin was wise to it. Cullen Grey made a magnificent move and beat McMahon on the backhand. After a pair of misses in the second round, it was up to Boruvka Banananak to keep Lethbridges hopes alive. He tried to surprise Braulin with a strong wrister from just outside the hash marks but was denied and Vancouver won (4-3) in the shootout.


Postgame: The Lions will need to pick themselves back up after this demoralizing loss. The rookies will need to look to the veterans to see how to bounce back against Kelowna. Vancouver will have to move right along and ready themselves for a strong opponent in Colorado.

3 Stars
1 - Jan Zacha (VAN)
2 - Delver Fudgeson (LBL)
3 - Boruvka Banananak (LBL)