By Matthew Gourlie
The last time the Moose Jaw Warriors and the Red Deer Rebels met, the Warriors out-shot their hosts 69-21 and posted a 6-3 win.
Friday night, the Rebels got some revenge as they came into Moose Jaw and skated away with an impressive 3-1 win.
“This one feel pretty good. They took it to us on home ice there and it was kind of nice to return the favour and kind of shove it up them a little bit,” said Rebels goalie Riley Lamb who made 32 saves in Friday’s win after being peppered for 69 shots on Jan. 3. “It’s a huge win for us.”
The Rebels (15-25-9-3) have won three straight games on their East Division road trip and have points in six straight contests after snapping their 13-game losing streak.
For the Warriors (39-9-1-2) it was their second straight loss. It’s the first time they’ve lost consecutive games since Oct. 18 and the start of their U.S. Division road trip. That is the only other time they have lost two in a row this season.
“We didn’t play our best game and I think that comes down to preparation,” said Warriors defenceman Josh Brook. “I don’t think we’re preparing right and I think our egos are a little too high. We need to pick it up.
“This is one of the hardest parts of the season. It doesn’t matter what you do at the start, these are teams that are making playoff pushes. We should be turning our game up, not turning it down.”
The Rebels were the recipients of some fortunate bounces that led to their goals, but they also created far more quality scoring chances and out-worked and out-played the Warriors.
“We have to look in the mirror and change our attitudes,” Brook said. “I think they did want it more. I don’t think we wanted it enough and that showed. They had a lot of time in our end and they had too many shots.”
The Rebels earned any luck they had as they got plenty of pucks and traffic at the Warriors net. Moose Jaw made a good push after falling behind 2-1 midway through the third period, but couldn’t solve Lamb.
“Everyone is buying in and playing their role and doing what we need to do to win games,” Lamb said. “We had a pretty tough start to the year, but we’re turning it around and it’s really going to help us heading into the playoffs. We’re going to try to make a push here and try to get in.”
Chris Douglas opened the scoring for Red Deer after Carson Sass’ point shot hit Kale Clague in front of the net bounced to Douglas who batted the puck into the yawning cage.
Brook tied the same in the second period as he ripped a high shot through a Jayden Halbgewachs screen. The Warriors nearly took a 2-1 lead when Brett Howden got a rebound past Lamb, but hit the side of the post with two seconds left in the middle frame.
Brandon Hagel’s deflected shot fluttered over Brody Willms and into the Warriors net for the game-winning goal.
Kristian Reichel iced the game with an empty net goal that Clague got two whacks at clearing, but couldn’t stop it from bouncing into the net.
“Our team played phenomenal. They kept everything really simple in our own end and chipped pucks, got it deep. We got a couple of bounces in there end and blocked a lot of shots in ours,” Lamb said.
Moose Jaw’s Barrett Sheen served the first game of his five-game suspension for a checking to the head major Saturday in Medicine Hat.
The Warriors were also without defenceman Jett Woo who missed his fourth straight game and remains week-to-week with an upper body injury.
Red Deer defenceman Alexander Alexeyev remains out of the lineup after returning to Russia for personal reasons.
