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Cubs can’t contain Lightning in high-scoring affair Sunday

Sep 24, 2018 | 10:26 AM

STETTLER, AB – Goals weren’t hard to come by in Stettler on Sunday for the Medicine Hat Travelodge Cubs, but they couldn’t cap the Lightning offence in an 8-6 loss.

Rallying from a pair of deficits, the Cubs couldn’t struggled to stay out of the box in the third period on Sunday to suffer their first loss of the 2018-19 HJHL season.

Stettler opened the scoring just over eight minutes into the game with a Rylee Jacobson unassisted marker, but the Cubs answered right back on the power play from Joshua Schafer one minute later.

An unassisted goal off the post from Alex Duclos at the midway mark of the frame gave Medicine Hat their first lead of the game, before Stettler tied things up at 2-2 thanks to Matt Sylvester.

That wouldn’t be all from the Lightning however, as Sylvester completed the hat-trick with two more goals to his credit over the first three minutes of the frame.

Down by a 4-2 count, Medicine Hat clawed their way back on the power play with Cooper Hilworth’s first career HJHL goal with 13:21 left in the second.

Justin Fournier restored Stettler’s two goal lead a few minutes later beating Brett Vanderveer, but that started a parade to the penalty box for the Lightning.

Medicine Hat racked up three power play goals in a row to close out the period, with brothers Chandler and Fletcher Aleman netting all three markers to put the Cubs ahead 6-5 at the intermission.

Everything would come crashing down for Medicine Hat in the third period however, as Stettler netted three goals on the power play themselves despite being outshot 16-9 over the final 20 minutes.

Jonathan Fournier, Reagan Holmes, and Kieran Rost scored for the Lightning in the third to hand Medicine Hat their first loss and drop their season opening record to 1-1.

Cubs starter Teron Funk was pulled after just 11 minutes of action after allowing two goals on five shots, while Vanderveer was tagged with the loss after allowing six goals on 22 shots against.

Noah Irvine had four assists in the loss, while Chandler Aleman and Schafer each had multi-point efforts.

After starting the season on the road, the Cubs will hold their home opener on Saturday night when they renew their rivalry with the Coaldale Copperheads at the Kinplex at 6:30 pm.