Carter Sanderson’s hat trick powers the Hitmen to their best start since 2009

The Calgary Hitmen are off to their best start in 17 years after Carter Sanderson powered another comeback Saturday night in Lethbridge. Sanderson recorded his first career WHL hat trick and finished with four points as Calgary defeated the Hurricanes 7-4, improving to 4-0 for the first time since the 2009-10 season. The Hitmen spent most of the first two periods chasing the game, falling behind 2-0 early and later trailing 3-2 and 4-3, but answered every time before taking control in the third.

Sanderson scored Calgary’s first goal on the power play, tied the game 3-3 in the second and completed the hat trick with a shorthanded empty-netter late in the third. Wyatt Pisarczyk and Andrei Molgachev supplied Calgary’s other first- and second-period goals before Brennan Brown tipped home the eventual winner early in the third. Brown has now scored in each of Calgary’s first four games, while Blake Vanek added a power-play goal in his season debut. Sanderson, meanwhile, has exploded for seven points in only two games since returning from Pittsburgh Penguins camp.

The result gives Calgary considerably more than an undefeated record to celebrate. The Hitmen have already shown they can win shootouts, overtime games, blowouts and now a chaotic comeback on the road, with scoring coming from throughout the lineup. What was supposed to be defined largely by the franchise’s farewell season at the Saddledome is quickly developing into a competitive story of its own. With Sanderson emerging as an immediate difference-maker and Brown producing every night, Calgary’s perfect opening is beginning to look less like an early-season curiosity and more like evidence that the Hitmen could be one of the WHL’s teams to watch.