It was a third period the Airdrie Xtreme would like to have back.
The Bantam AAA team had a 3-1 lead with 8:30 left in the final frame, but allowed three goals in four minutes to lose 4-3 to the Lethbridge Golden Hawks at the Ron Ebbesen Arena on Sept. 26.
“When you’re up two with seven or eight minutes left, you just can’t let that happen,” said Xtreme head coach Terry Keogh. “We’ve got some guys that are banged up and stuff, but those are just excuses. We let up and you can’t do that in a 60-minute game.”
Second-year forward Connor Boyd left the game with a suspected sprained MCL after a knee-on-knee hit by Lethbridge’s Devon Jerome. The Golden Hawk forward received a five-minute major and a game misconduct on the late-first period play.
“We’re hoping that it isn’t serious,” Keogh said. “We’re certainly hoping he’s back as soon as possible because it would be a big void.”
Kyle Pauls had two goals for the Xtreme, which now moves to 1W-2L on the season, with Ryan Zenuik accounting for the other. Mackenzie Bauer added two assists.
The Golden Hawks’ were led by the hat trick effort of its captain Cavin Leth, who opened the scoring for Lethbridge on a rebound shot nine minutes into the first frame. The Xtreme then had three consecutive power plays, including the Jerome five-minute kneeing major split between periods.
“We were outplaying them and getting pucks to the net, but we were shooting a lot right at him and he (Lethbridge’s Jonathon Hogue) is a good goaltender,” Keogh said. “Down in their end we were killing their penalties off, because we had too much perimeter passing and just weren’t getting pucks to the net. We’re still working on it and it’s early in the season.”
Zenuik managed Airdrie’s lone power play goal, on seven opportunities, with 10:25 left in the second on a wrap around bank shot through Hogue’s legs. Pauls then scored his first of the game, on a lovely shorthanded pass from Bauer, to give the Xtreme a 2-1 lead at the second intermission.
Pauls’ second goal, also from Bauer, was on a rebound from the backboards with 8:48 left in the game. But Leth and Matthew Nadeau scored 24 seconds apart, 24 seconds after Airdrie took its 3-1 lead, to quickly tie it. Leth then added his third with 4:57 left to put the Golden Hawks up for good.
“Momentum is a huge thing and Lethbridge were getting tired, as they played last night,” Keogh said. “But after they got the one goal (the 3-2 marker), they got a second wind and away they went. We didn’t react.”
Airdrie also lost 6-4 to the Calgary Bisons on Sept. 22, but Keogh said he isn’t too concerned at this point in the season.
“We should be 3W-0L right now, instead of 1W-2L,” he said. “We dominated the game against the Bisons, outshot them, outplayed them – just didn’t outscore them. We’ve had our chances to win, so we just need to put the puck in the net.”
The Xtreme plays in Calgary against the Royals on Sept. 29, before returning home to host the Camrose Kodiaks on Oct. 3. Game time is 1 p.m. at the Ron Ebbesen Arena.
