The Red Deer Rebels ensured that 4,118 hockey fans got what they paid for, and then some tonight. The game was filled with the thrilling old-time hockey many fans in the arena grew up with. It was a boisterous crowd and the Rebels gave them something to cheer about with their late-game heroics.
“Well it was a battle, I thought as the game went on we got better and better. You get down two and you battle back.” said a much happier Head Coach Brent Sutter.
The game actually started out quite slowly for the Rebels yet again, this time it cost them.
Second star on the night, Hudson Elyniuk, blasted home a point shot right off a Matt Leduc face-off win. It would be the Carolina
Hurricanes draft pick’s ninth goal of the year. This was just the second shot of the night for Red Deer’s starting netminder Ethan Anders, who was making his fifth straight start. With Lasse Petersen being placed on waivers, prospect Byron Fancy would serve as the back up and will likely do so until Riley Lamb is ready to return to action.
The first of two fights on the night saw Brandon Schuldhaus and Zach Fischer square off in a dandy, as the linesmen let go for a minute and a half. Schuldhaus would have the early advantage but the scorers gave the win to Fischer after he connected a few uppercuts to end the fight.
With 5:58 to go in the first period, NHL draft eligible Ty Smith brought the puck to the front of the net, Milos Fafrak took a whack at it, as Elynuik collected his second goal of the night to put the Chiefs ahead 2-0.
With 17.2 seconds to go in the period, Lane Zablocki picks up his fourth goal of the season, after Grayson Pawlenchuk took a shot on Spokane starter Dawson Weatherill and the rebound went right to Zablocki. He was wide open and he just tucked the puck into the back of the net. The power play goal would bring the Rebels to within one after 20 minutes.
The Rebels came out with a little more gusto in the second period. They limited the chances the Chiefs had and where needed, Ethan Anders stood tall. The teams would take turns taking penalties and another fight would ensue when Tyson Helgesen would make a questionable hit on Austin Pratt. Pratt would lie on the ice while Grayson Pawlenchuk grabbed Helgesen to dance. This fight would take place while the trainer would rush across the ice to help an injured Pratt. The judges would call this fight a draw.
Early in the third period, Zablocki would be Johnny-on-the-spot again, as a Rebel shot rebounded off Weatherill and land right on his stick. This power play goal would tie the game at two with Red Deer coming on stronger and stronger as the game wore on.
Shortly after the Zablocki goal, the Rebels would find themselves in penalty trouble. A Kristian Reichel hooking call, followed by a Grayson Pawlenchuk holding call would test the penalty killers mettle. The team was able to kill both penalties off without much trouble. It was their saving grace for much of the evening as they would go 6-for-6 when they were down a man on this evening.
“Thought our penalty killing in the third was huge” said coach Sutter.
With 6:28 to go in the third period, none of the Rebels players picked up the trailing Nolan Reid, who was in the clear to snipe a shot from the top of the circle and beat Anders to retake the lead for the Chiefs at 3-2.
The rest of the period saw the Rebels just continue to pressure the Chiefs. They were not having any luck and with just over five minutes left in regulation Schuldhaus hammered a shot off the post after he had cleanly beaten Weatherill.
With 90 seconds left remaining, Sutter pulled Ethan Anders for an extra attacker. With the six-on-five and just 38.9 on the clock Dawson Barteaux sent a puck to the net and Brandon Hagel was able to tuck it past Weatherill and into net to send this game to overtime.
In overtime, it was all Red Deer. Brandon Hagel got into the Chiefs zone and was slashed by newcomer Fischer. Red Deer would have many chances four-on-three and a one-timer blasted off the lower boy of Los Angeles Kings draft pick Jaret Anderson-Dolan. Despite being in obvious pain and limping on one leg, he managed to stay out on the ice and help his team kill off the remainder of the penalty.
The Rebels completed the comeback when Alexander Alexeyev sprung Reese Johnson, who went two-on-one with Jared Dmytriw. Johnson would shovel a pass into the crease and Jared Dmytriw would only have to tip it home for the Rebels to take this one in overtime.
Sutter had some praise for Alexander Alexeyev who returned tonight from injury.
“Well you know when you have a guy like that who is a horse on the back end, and plays a lot a lot of minutes and knows how to play the game. He is obviously significant to our group.”
Rebel Yell… The three stars on this night were 1) Lane Zablocki 2) Hudson Elyniuk 3) Jared Dmytriw. Jack Flaman joined the Rebels in time to make the lineup for tonight’s game. Brent Sutter had the following to say about him after the game, “I thought he was great, we know what he is, he’s a player and we knew what we were getting.” Flaman is the first Rebels player in their history with the first name Jack (26 seasons). The Rebels penalty kill was 6-of-6 moving them to 80.4 per cent and good for 5th in the WHL. The power play went 2-for-6 on the night, they are now ninth in the WHL at 25 per cent. Hagel and Elyniuk each had 5 shots on net. Dmytriw was a game best 7-of-11 in the faceoff dot (min. 12 faceoffs). Red Deer has now won three games when trailing after 40 minutes, last season they went 3-23-2-1 when trailing after two periods.
