It didn’t come easy and it took 186 games, but Riley Stotts strung together his first WHL career hat trick.
“It’s exciting. I was happy to get it (Saturday). It was good to get the win,” said Stotts about potting three goals, including the eventual game winner.
It was a great night for the Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, but he wasn’t the first to hit the scoresheet.
Philadelphia Flyers prospect Egor Zamula got the Hitmen off on the right foot.
An early penalty to Ethan Sakowich for holding gave the Hitmen the man advantage and the opportunity to draw first blood. Zamula corralled a pass from Riley Fiddler-Schultz and fired a long wrist shot past a screened Byron Fancy.
It was Fancy’s first start of the season and it was not the start he wanted.
As the game carried on, one could tell the two teams were no fans of one another.
Calgary was called for two penalties just 38 seconds apart. The two-man advantage gave the Rebels some life, and they were rewarded with a goal from their captain, Dawson Barteaux, scoring his second in as many nights.
Another penalty spelled disaster for the Rebels as a screened Fancy did not see a Stotts shot from the circle. His first of the night was also his first of the young season.
When all was said and done for the opening 20 minutes, the Hitmen led 2-1 and the teams had taken 11 penalties between them.
The middle period started out as chippy as the first period ended, including a spirited scrap between Hunter Campbell and Jaxsen Wiebe.
The teams settled things down, and a chess match broke out between them. Just 14 shots hit the net, with Calgary taking eight shots on Fancy. Jack McNaughton did not face any difficult shots in the period and had stopped 13 pucks through 40 minutes.
The third period is where things came off the rails for the home side.
Nine seconds into the third period, Calgary had a third goal and the insurance marker they needed to carry the momentum to the final buzzer. Luke Prokop put a puck toward the Rebels net, and Stotts was in the perfect position to redirect the puck behind Fancy for his second goal of the game.
“It’s a sin in hockey to give up a goal in the first few minutes of a period or the last,” Sutter said. “They scored nine seconds in the third, just a routine play. That should never happen. It’s a process.”
With Dakota Krebs in the sin bin for the third time on this night, Stotts scored his hat trick goal. Prokop again got the puck to Stotts, and he used NHL-like speed to wrap the puck around the net and into the yawning cage.
“I was just trying to get up the ice as fast as I could. A good job by Luke (Prokop) — he threw it hard off the wall, and I was able to get around the guy and around the goalie. It worked out,” Stotts said.
With a little more than seven minutes left, Layne Toder scored on a knuckle puck of a shot. The puck fluttered by Fancy for the dagger in the hearts of the 3,947 fans in attendance.
“We turned too many pucks over. We had pucks on our stick and we try and make a difficult play instead of making the easy play. We didn’t have good enough support in some areas. When you play that way, you get chasing the game,” said Rebels head coach Brent Sutter, following the game, about how his team tended to play throughout the night.
Rebel Yell… The three stars in the building were Stotts, Zamula, and Brett Davis. Calgary was 2-for-3 on the power play and added a short-handed marker. Red Deer was just 1-for-7. Shots were 33-16 for the Hitmen; Stotts’ 6 led all skaters. Brett Davis had 4 shots for the home team. Red Deer will face off with the Saskatoon Blades on Tuesday at home, while the Hitmen will host Medicine Hat on Sunday afternoon at the Saddledome. Head coach Brent Sutter was honoured prior to puck drop for his 500th WHL win as a head coach — only the ninth coach to do so in the league.
