The Carolina Jr. Hurricanes Premier completed the organization’s day sweep over the Hampton Roads Whalers as they won 6-1. Luke Waterson (3g-1a) and Carter Radosta (3a) were the stars of the night as they led their Jr. Hurricanes to the win.
With the win, the Jr. Canes move to 2-3-1-1 on the season, and sit just two points behind the Whalers for third place in the Southeast Division with two games in hand.
The Whalers drop to 3-4-1-1 with the loss, and sit four points back of second place Potomac Patriots.
Ryan Kalina moves to 2-1-0-0 with his 25-save win as he carries a 1.34 goals against average (GAA), .939 save percentage (SV%), and one shutout on the young season.
Nate McAlpine picks up his first loss of the season as he is now 3-1-0-0. Despite allowing four goals on 31 shots in tonight’s game, his numbers are still impressive as he has a 2.13 GAA, .925 SV%, and one shutout.
Timo Johner saw nearly 15 minutes of action tonight, allowing one goal on five shots he faced. He still sits at 0-2-1-0 on the season, carrying a 3.30 GAA and a .885 SV%.
Game Recap
Early in the first period, you could see there was a big feeling out process to the game. These two teams have not seen each other yet. The Whalers did test Kalina early to see how he would be handling the puck as they had a 6-2 shot advantage through the first eight minutes. After the early onslaught of shots, the Jr. Canes were able to settle in and get a few shots of their own as they took control in the shot count by an 11-8 margin with 6:38 to go in the first period. The Jr. Canes kept on the gas and it finally paid off. Billy Loughnane opened the scoring for the Jr. Canes as a turnover by Gregor McNish allowed Roberto Nabozny to turn into the zone with speed and dish a pass to Loughnane, who buried it five hole. Just 20 seconds later, another turnover, this time by Jacob McCormack, ended up in the back of the Whalers’ net. Radosta stripped McCormack of the puck, and threw it out front where Waterson was waiting to bury home the insurance goal.
The Whalers found themselves down 2-0 heading into the second period after coming out flying to begin the first. A couple turnovers were the difference in the period, as well as an onslaught of shots by the Jr. Canes as they took an 18-10 shot count into intermission.
Just like they did in the first period, the Whalers came out firing. They were able to find the back of the net at 1:18 of the second period as Wyatt Teubert brought the Whalers to within one. A scramble in front of the net led to the puck bouncing off the post, and sat in the crease for Teubert to tap in. Sam Pfeiffer and Nikita Zozulia picked up the assists. The rest of the second period was a very defensive-heavy period as both teams only tallied eight shots each through the middle 20 minutes. The Jr. Canes took a 2-1 lead into the second intermission.
Early in the third period began the Jr. Canes run-away period. At 1:52, Waterson picked up his second goal of the game to make it 3-1. A puck rimmed hard around the wall in Carolina’s end by Hampton Roads was rimmed a little too hard as it would come all the way out to the neutral zone for Radosta to skate in stride and puck it up off the wall. Using the speed he gained, he cleanly beat McCormack to the outside, threw the puck in front, and Waterson was there to roof it over the left shoulder of McAlpine. The train kept rolling for the Jr. Canes as off a perfectly executed offensive-zone faceoff play led to Carolina taking a 4-1 lead. Radosta won the draw cleanly back to Colby Markham, who rimmed the puck down low for an awaiting Gian Khani. He would lose possession, but Waterson was there to throw a pass high above the top of the left-wing circle and towards the middle of the ice. Markham stepped into a one-time shot and blistered it off what looked to be the stick of a Whalers’ defenseman and past McAlpine. That would end McAlpine’s night as Johner come on in relief.
Carolina would add a fifth goal as Waterson completed his hat trick with an empty-net goal at 17:32. The bleeding did not stop there as a sixth goal would be put up on the board with 59 seconds to go in the game. A pass from Drew Bauman to Steel Geddes would find the back of the net as Deddes’ shot from 30 feet out cleanly beat Johner on the glove side with no one in front of him. That would cap off the game as the Jr. Canes took a 6-1 win in the first meeting of the season between the two sides. Carolina outshot Hampton Roads by a 38-26 margin. It went 0 for 2 on the powerplay, while Hampton Roads did not have a powerplay all game.
The two teams meet again on Sunday (Oct.6) at 12:30 p.m. at Chilled Ponds. Catch all the action on FloHockey.
