On the first cold and snowy night of unofficial winter in Red Deer, 3577 fans made their way to the Enmax Centrium to see the bi-annual home game against the Seattle Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds of course are the Western Hockey League’s reigning champions and came to Red Deer on their Central Division trip. Red Deer is the fourth stop of six and the T-Birds came into the contest with a 7-5-0-1 record. Red Deer was 8-6-1-0 heading into this one.
Red Deer was without starting netminder Riley Lamb, at least for a little longer as he is now listed as day-to-day on the weekly WHL injury report. Mason McCarty also did not play and no reason was given for his absence from tonight’s action.
An early penalty would put the Rebels into a hole, continuing their trend of starting off home games poorly. Brandon Schuldhaus would go off for holding one of his former teams’ players. A former Red Deer Rebel would put the visitors up 1-0 with a power play marker. Jarret Tyszka and Donovan Neuls would provide the assists on an absolute rocket of a shot from Austin Strand from just inside the circle.
The Thuderbirds would keep the pressure on the Rebels’ starting goaltender Ethan Anders throughout the first period, putting 20 shots on net. He would stop 19 of them, keeping the game close. “You give up 20 shots in the first and most of them are against the top lines, so you know it makes it hard”, said Brent Sutter when asked about his goalie keeping the Rebels in it.
The Thunderbirds nearly made it 2-0 when a pileup in the crease would see the puck wind up in the Rebel net. The ref was very quick to wave off the goal and there was no resistance from the Thunderbirds to review the play.
Defenseman Alexander Alexeyev would score for the Rebels before the period was over to tie the game at one heading to the dressing room. A Brandon Schuldhaus blast from the point would rebound straight to Alexeyev. His low glove side shot on Liam Hughes would hit the back of the net.
There is the 1st goal by a @Rebelshockey defenseman playing defense. A huge slapper from @Alexeyev04
— Paul Figler (@Paul_Figler) November 2, 2017
The Rebels penalty killers would be busy in the second period. Red Deer took four minor penalties in a row but were able to keep the Thuderbirds’ power play units at bay. The team would go 4-for-5 on the penalty kill for the evening, besting their power play unit that went 0-for-5.
Red Deer would kill off an interference penalty by Grayson Pawlenchuk and then head up ice and score on a point shot that would be tipped in front of the net. Brandon Hagel would be the Rebel stick holder who put the puck past Hughes, giving the assists to Herauf and Barteaux.
Period two would end with the Rebels leading the T’Birds 2-1 and Seattle would lead in shots 32-21.
In the third period it would be the Thunderbirds running into penalty troubles. Their penalty killers would be up to the task for the three power plays they would give the Rebels. In between those penalties, the T-Birds would find a way to tie the game at two. Right after the radio time out in the middle of the final frame, the Rebels would cough the puck up in the own zone and it would find the stick of Blake Bargar. He would make a pass over to Nolan Volcan and Volcan would wire a shot past Ethan Anders.
During their fifth power play, the Rebels would turn the puck over again, this time as they were looking to enter the Thunderbirds’ zone. Donovan Neuls would race down the boards, cut to the front of the net, get checked by Alexeyev but deposit the puck behind Anders to take the lead in this one. The T-Birds would then seal the win when Anders was pulled for the extra attacker. Sami Moilanen would gain the centre ice line and toss the puck towards the Rebels net. 4-2 would be your final score for the Thunderbirds. The Rebels would hold a 15-7 advantage in shots in the final period but Seattle would edge them on this night in shots as well 39-36.
When asked to summarize the game Brent Sutter blamed the coaching. “Bad Coaching, playing those guys in the third period. Our so-called best players they were terrible tonight. Shouldn’t have had them on the ice in the third period, shouldn’t have had them on the power play in the last four minutes, that’s my fault, it’s unacceptable.”
“Our older guys didn’t play like we needed them to play, when you have that and your best players aren’t your best players, they are your worst players, you struggle. You put other players in positions and situations that they probably struggle a little bit in too.”
When asked about who he did like tonight. “I liked Flaman’s line, they were definitely by far without question our best guys tonight.”
Rebel Yell… The 3 stars on the night were 1) Donovan Neuls (SEA) 2) Liam Hughes (SEA) 3) Ethan Anders (RD). Austin Pratt and Lane Zablocki had five shots on net each for Red Deer, while Nolan Volcan led all shooters with eight. Red Deer will now embark on a trip that has them away from the Centrium for 17 days. They will play seven road games in the time in Saskatchewan and British Columbia. They return home to face the Kootenay ICE on November 18th.
