As far as wins go, this one was huge. “It certainly was an exciting win.” Head Coach Brent Sutter spoke about his team’s game after this one.
An absolutely stunning come-from-behind victory by the Red Deer Rebels is like an urban myth, except tonight the myth was made a reality.
Red Deer piled on four third period goals to erase a 3-1 deficit with only 12 minutes and 55 seconds left to play in regulation. “It certainly was an exciting win, to come back like that and score four goals in the third to win,” added Sutter.
The Broncos would lose in regulation when leading after 40 minutes for just the third time in 34 opportunities.
Coming into the contest Swift Current had collected points in their last eight games, moving themselves into a tie with the Moose Jaw Warriors for first in the Eastern Conference. Red Deer had lost their last two games and were hanging onto the third spot in the Central Division.
It was a pretty ho-hum first period for both teams, neither able to beat the other team’s goaltender. Riley Lamb had to make seven saves, while Joel Hofer made six in his first start since a February 10th win over the Brandon Wheat Kings.
The Red Deer Rebels would open the scoring in this game, 1:28 into period number two. The message from Brent Sutter from the night before must have gotten through to Brandon Hagel as he scored his 12th goal of the season. Hagel received a pass at the Broncos blue line from Alexander Alexeyev and walked passed two Broncos defenders. He was able to beat Hofer low to make it 1-0 Red Deer.
It was a lead they held for only a little more than a minute on the potent Swift Current offense that has averaged four goals per game over their 61 games. Unfortunately for the Rebels the first goal was just the beginning.
Alexeyev missed an opportunity to clear the Rebels zone but his attempt would find the stick of Tyler Steenbergen. His pass to Giorgio Estephan would give the Broncos their best chance of the night to this point and Estephan would have his 27th goal of the season to tie things up at one.
The Rebels were given two power plays but the Broncos sixth ranked penalty kill was able to stop Red Deer from earning their lead back in the second period.
Shortly after the two penalties it would be the Broncos taking their first lead of the game. A pile up to the left of Lamb would temporarily impede him from getting set back up and the puck would find its way to the slot. A waiting Matteo Gennaro would deposit his 37th goal on a back hand shot that was just out of the reach of Lamb.
Looking to provide his team with a spark with a few seconds left in the period, Alexeyev would drop the mitts with the captain of the Broncos, Glenn Gawdin. The two would take a second to square up and then the fists started flying. Alexeyev would just barely get the better of Gawdin and land on top of the Bronco to end the fight.
It was Gawdin though that would gain the upper hand from the fight at the end of the second period. Artyom Minulin would get the puck deep in the Rebels zone, Gawdin scooped it up and skated alone behind the Rebels net. His speed created enough gap between him and any Rebel player and his long reach allowed him to beat Lamb on the far side. It was Gawdin’s league leading 113th point of the year.
The crowd may have felt like that was the nail in the coffin for the Rebels.
It wasn’t.
A little more than two minutes later, captain Grayson Pawlenchuk would shake off his 15 game goalless drought and bring the Rebels back to within a goal. His hit along the boards to the left of Hofer got the crowd roaring, then the Broncos forward made an errant pass to the defenders behind him. Pawlenchuk scooped the puck and beat an unsuspecting Hofer.
Pawlenchuk wasn’t done there. With his team pressing for the tying goal, it was Reese Johnson taking a shot towards Hofer. The shot went wide and was picked up by Pawlenchuk. He raced around the net and stuffed under Hofer’s right pad to tie the game. It was Pawlenchuk’s 18th goal of the season and first multi goal night since the first night of the season. “It was definitely nice, kind of lately I haven’t had the best of luck, but I put that aside for the team’s success. I was definitely nice to get some personal success there,” Pawlenchuk added post game about his two goal performance.
A minute later, Chris Douglas wanted to get in on the action. He was the recipient of some luck when Mason McCarty’s shot stayed in the crease uncovered for a few seconds before Douglas was able to tap it behind the downed Hofer. His goal would be the eventual game winner.
Red Deer wasn’t yet done though as Kristian Reichel made a very low percentage shot towards the Broncos now empty net. It perfectly landed and slid right into the empty cage. The goal made it 5-3 Red Deer with just 42 seconds left.
Swift Current out shot Red Deer 31-28. Neither team would score with the man advantage, Red Deer was 0-for-2 while Swift Current was 0-for-1.
“Moreso than anything, I just liked our overall game tonight. We were just much better in a lot of areas. We played more tonight like we had seen on the road trip (through B.C.)” when asked how Sutter felt about tonight’s contest.
Rebel Yell… The three stars on the night were 1) Grayson Pawlenchuck (2 goals) 2) Glenn Gawdin (1 goal) 3) Alexander Alexeyev (1 assist). For the second night in a row the Rebels were badly out matched in the faceoff circle. Gawdin was 15-of-19 while Reese Johnson was the best Rebel at 8-of-22. Tyler Steenbergen and Grayson Pawlenchuk each had five shots on net. The next action for the Red Deer Rebels comes on Wednesday at home to the Calgary Hitmen. Swift Current has a quick turnaround as they head to Edmonton to take on the Oil Kings in action tomorrow night.
