A game that the Red Deer Rebels should have won, went down the tubes similar to rest of the losses that piled up in November and the first half of December. The Rebels played host to the WHL cellar dwelling Edmonton Oil Kings on this night, but it was the Rebels who looked like the team in the basement, as they fell 3-1 Wednesday night at the Enmax Centrium.
The Edmonton Oil Kings didn’t get off to a very good start, taking an early hooking penalty, which Red Deer capitalized on. Alexander Alexeyev found pay dirt as he lifted a shot over the Oil Kings netminder. Josh Dechaine was beaten for the only time on the night as the puck sailed into the top corner above his glove. Grayson Pawlenchuk and Dawson Barteaux received assists on the play. Alexeyev would extend his personal points streak to four games.
The Oil Kings then scored on the man advantage as Davis Koch netted his 15th of the year. The Rebels had been assessed a bench minor after a couple of fights. The first between Brandon Cutler and Colton Kehler was deemed a staged fight by the referees and therefore both players were given game misconducts. Joining in on the fun was Austin Pratt and Davis Murray, who also dropped the gloves. During this fight it appeared to the crowd that Ty Gerla inserted himself in the fight. There would be no call on the play and the Rebels bench was given the penalty for continuing to argue about the call into the next whistle.
Before the period was out the Oil Kings dominated the Rebels by putting 17 shots on net. Another goal snuck by Ethan Anders, as Try Fix-Wolansky made a nifty move in close on a breakaway to put the Oil Kings up 2-1. Davis Koch and Conner McDonald would get the assists.
The shots ended up 17-5 in favour of the Oil Kings who also led 2-1 after 20 minutes.
The second period started off much like the first for the Oil Kings as they needed just two minutes to put another puck past Anders. David Kope would score his third WHL goal after Brett Kemp attempted a wraparound. The puck came straight off Anders and onto Kope’s stick and made it 3-1 Oil Kings. McDonald would register his third assist on the night.
The Rebels did settle down after the third Oil Kings goal and were able to generate more chances as well as hold off the Oil Kings offensive attack. After 40 minutes the Rebels had cut the shots lead that the Oil Kings had down to just 26-19.
Neither team was really able to get much going in the third period. The Rebels took two more minor penalties than the Oil Kings did in the final frame and the two minors to Edmonton were coincidental. The power play for Red Deer would go 1-for-4 while they killed 5-of-6 penalties they took.
After the game coach Brent Sutter had this to say about his team’s efforts in the loss, “We weren’t good enough tonight, in the first period we were terrible, we were obviously not ready to play. I thought that team outworked us tonight. We have to play to our systems and have a work ethic. But a lot of times tonight we didn’t finish checks, both younger and older players. That part was disappointing because you can’t expect to win in this league playing like that.”
Anders finished the game with 33 saves while Josh Dechaine made 27 saves in the win.
Rebel Yell… The three stars on the night were 1) Conner McDonald 2) Alexander Alexeyev 3) Trey Fix-Wolansky. McDonald had three assists in the game. McDonald and Tomas Soustal would end the game with 7 shots on net a piece, Mason McCarty led the Rebels with 4. Soustal went 15-of-17 in the faceoff dot leading all players while Reese Johnson was the best Rebel going 14-of-23. The two teams meet again tonight in Edmonton to finish off the home and home after the holiday break.
