In what may have been billed as a mismatch, the Brandon Wheat Kings (15-7-0-1) made the third stop of their six-game road trip in Red Deer (9-15-3-0) tonight. 3624 people were in attendance in a game that had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows for the home side.
Before the first minute was even finished being played, Rebels draft eligible forward Kristian Reichel ripped a wrist shot off the post. He had just barely beaten Wheat Kings starting goaltender Dylan Myskiw.
Red Deer began the game playing very well in the Brandon zone, keeping the Wheat Kings to their half of the ice surface. Towards the midway point of the period, it would be Brandon’s opportunity to get some chances.
On a broken play in the Rebels zone, a pass from Caden Dailey to Cole Rinehardt would see the twine behind Rebels starter Riley Lamb. The puck beat him high on the glove side and Reinhardt’s seventh goal would put the Wheat Kings up 1-0.
The best chance of the first period for the Rebels would come with just over 2 minutes to play. Mason McCarty stole the puck in the Wheat Kings zone and cut in front of Myskiw. McCarty was unable to get the puck over Myskiw’s left pad.
A late period penalty for cross-checking by Kale Clague would see the Rebels tie the game just 11 seconds into the power play. Kristian Reichel (12) with his rocket of a wrist shot went short side on Myskiw. The cross-ice pass came from unsigned Buffalo Sabres prospect Brandon Hagel. Grayson Pawlenchuck also got an assist on the play.
The start of the second period would see multiple chances for the Rebels, sloppy play kept the puck away from the Brandon net until Mason McCarty (14) scored just 37 seconds into the period. Brandon Schuldhaus and Reese Johnson would pick up the assists on the goal.
The Brandon Wheat Kings would hem the Rebels in their own zone for an extended period of time until Dawson Barteaux shoveled a pass to Lane Zablocki at the Rebel blueline. He sped down the wing on the glove hand side of Myskiw and snapped a shot just above his blocker. Red Deer would take a 3-1 lead on Zablocki’s eighth goal of the year.
5:07 later, the Rebels would extend their lead on the Wheat Kings to 4-1. Reese Johnson picked up the puck in the high slot after a pass from Mason McCarty missed Pawlenchuk. He was able to riffle a shot high blocker side on Myskiw. It would be his eighth goal on the season.
Reese Johnson then grabbed his second goal of the night, on the power play. Another errant pass found his stick, this time in the low slot and he just pounded the puck past Myskiw. Zablocki and Carson Sass picked up the assists.
With 14:25 to go in the game, Brandon was able to get their second goal by Lamb. On a power play, Guttenburg chipped a puck over the downed Lamb after a pass from Tanner Kaspick. The second assist went to Ty Lewis.
Just 1:19 later the Wheat Kings struck again. A scramble in front of the net puts the puck on the stick of Evan Weinger from Ty Lewis and Kade Jensen
An unlucky bounce sees a Cole Reinhardt shot ricochet off Ethan Sakowich in front of the net and right in. The Wheat Kings closed the gap at to 5-4 on Reinhardt’s second of the night and eighth of the season. Only 6:39 remained in the period.
With just 1:44 to go in the game a short-handed chance for the Wheat Kings found the back of the net. Stelio Mattheos (17) got a pass from
Kaspick in the neutral zone as the Wheat Kings broke out of their zone 3-on-2. Tie game 5-5.
Overtime would see the teams trade chances at 3-on-3. It was thrilling for the fans in the arena. Chances were coming left and right and the teams combined for 11 shots in the five minutes. The goaltenders would be the stars of overtime, Dylan Myskiw made four stops while Riley Lamb made six. Unfortunately the seventh shot with just 11.5 seconds to go in overtime would get by Lamb and hand the Wheat Kings a huge come from behind 6-5 victory. Stelio Mattheos scored his 18th goal of the season and second of the night. It would also be his fifth game winner of the year.
After the game, Head Coach Brent Sutter discussed his team’s third period collapse “It’s pretty obvious, you play 40 minutes the right way and you don’t play 20 minutes the right way against a good hockey team, that stuff happens to you. Obviously the third period was a meltdown, our defense was just non-existent in the third. The forwards didn’t have a forecheck.”
“You know you take a timeout to try to regroup and nothing happened, there was no response. Again this is a team that doesn’t know how to play 60 minutes yet, we played 40 minutes…”
“For 40 minutes we had a lot of good players and for 20 minutes we had a lot of bad players.”
Rebel Yell… The three stars were 1) Mattheos 2) Johnson 3) Rinehardt. Kristian Reichel led the Rebels with six shots on net, Mattheos would lead all players with nine. Connor Gutenberg went 9-for-16 in the faceoff dot while Reichel went 12-for-21. Red Deer was 2-for-4 on the power play, Brandon went 1-for-4 and added a short handed goal. Jared Dmytriw was traded earlier today to the Vancouver Giants in exchange for a 3rd round 2018 WHL Bantam Draft pick. Next up for the Wheat Kings is a short trip to Edmonton for a game tomorrow night with the Edmonton Oil Kings. Red Deer’s next action is Friday when the Regina Pats come to the Centrium. Game time is 7Pm.
