The Red Deer Rebels are making a habit of coming from behind to win hockey games. “We need to come a little more prepared to the rink.” said Lane Zablocki after the overtime come from behind victory. This time, they victimized the Regina Pats who were the visitors on this night. Tonight would make the fourth time in this young season that the team would win a game when being behind after 40 minutes. They only won three in the same position last year.
The Rebels and the Pats were without some of their biggest players on this night, as Nick Henry and Sam Steel were out for the Pats and Brandon Hagel, with an illness, was out for the Rebels.
Ethan Anders would get his sixth start in a row for the Red Deer Rebels while Tyler Brown would be the starter for the Regina Pats.
Red Deer would score goals on two of its seven first period shots. Hunter Donohoe would score his first WHL goal to put the Rebels up 1-0. The goal would be the first scored by a regular defenseman for the Rebels but for the fact that Donohoe was listed as a forward for this game with Hagel out. Brandon Cutler and Akash Bains would draw the assists.
With 3:07 to go in the first period and Jared Dmytriw in the penalty box for a hit from behind, Jack Flaman would streak down Tyler Brown’s right side and fling a puck towards the goal. The puck would find it’s way into the net and give Flaman his first goal as a Red Deer Rebel.
Not to be out done on the power play, the Regina Pats’ Dawson Davidson would get his third goal of the season on a pass from Jonathan Smart. The goal would cut the Rebels lead to 2-1 and that would close out the first period. The Regina Pats lead the shots 16-7.
Penalties would cost the Rebels early in the second period. Reese Johnson would take a delay-of-game penalty when he put the puck over the glass. While killing off the penalty the Rebels Akash Bains would slash a Regina Pats player making his way to the net to give the Pats a 5-on-3 for 36 seconds. Former Rebel Josh Mahura would make the Rebels pay as he would rifle a point shot past Ethan Anders and tie the game at two.
A little over four minutes later the Pats would strike again. Robbie Holmes would deflect a point shot by Jake Leschyshyn past Ethan Anders. Dawson Davidson would draw the second assist and the Pats would lead the Rebels 3-2.
As has had been the case in last night’s game, the Rebels would come out flying in the third period. The team would begin to put shots towards the Pats net and it would pay off. Defenceman Alexander Alexeyev would take a shot from the point that captain Grayson Pawlenchuk would tip past Brown to tie the game. The home crowd would cheer loudly and get the momentum swinging to the Rebels favor.
The remainder of the period would see the teams trade chances and generate chances but both goalies were up to the task. Austin Pratt would take a late penalty that would put the game into question but the Rebel penalty killers would dump the puck down the ice and hem the Pats mostly in their end of the ice.
This game would head to overtime tied at three. The Pats held a heavy margin in the scoring department 31-19.
In overtime the Rebels would once again prove victorious. They were able to hold onto the puck for much of the overtime, generating the only chance, one in which they would score. Lane Zablocki would score on his former team, when he rushed up the ice on the left side of Tyler Brown. Reese Johnson would race up to provide the decoy and Zablocki would hit pay dirt with a shot that came in just under the cross bar. The Rebels would take this one 4-3 in the extra frame. “When you play against your old team it’s always a game that is pretty easy to get up to, it was a hard fought win for our team and that was huge” said Zablocki post-game after he scored the overtime game winner.
Following tonight’s game head coach Brent Sutter had this to say about his team, “Well we got rewarded for playing 22 minutes of regulation time and what we did in overtime, so if that’s acceptable, then so I guess that’s acceptable.” Brent was visibly unhappy with his team’s effort for the first 38 minutes of tonight’s game. “To be quite honest we won 4-3 and that’s all great, but I am not happy with the fact that you get away with 22 minutes plus overtime tonight. I thought for those 38 minutes of the game we weren’t very good. And not hard enough and our work ethic wasn’t where it needed to be.”
Rebel Yell… After the game coach Sutter told the assembled media that Hagel was out tonight with an illness. The three stars on the night were 1) Ethan Anders 2) Josh Mahura 3) Lane Zablocki. Matt Bradley and Jake Leschyshyn would lead the shots for both teams with 5 each. Pawlenchuk and Flaman would have 3 each for the Rebels. Kristian Reichel would go 14-for-22 in the face off dot. Tomorrow night is the next action for the Red Deer Rebels as they head to Cranbrook to take on the Kootenay ICE to complete their three games in three nights. Puck drop is at 4pm.
