1998 – Playoff disappointment
The Rebels met the Swift Current Broncos in Game 1 of their opening-round playoff series. The Broncos had home-ice advantage and took the opening game 3-0. The Broncos took advantage of an empty net late in the game to ice the game.
The Broncos took 37 shots on Dustin Schwartz, while the Rebels directed just 21 shots Terry Friesen’s way. The goals were scored by Sergei Varlamov (2) and Jeremy Reich.
2002 – Tying up loose ends
As the 2001-02 season wound down, the Rebels took on the Calgary Hitmen. In the final game of the season for Red Deer, they took down Calgary 4-3 in overtime. Red Deer had locked up the division title the game before.
Goal scorers for the Rebels were Diarmuid Kelly, Carsen Germyn (2), and Andrew Bergen. Germyn’s game-winning goal came 3:58 into the extra frame. Future Carolina Hurricanes netminder Cam Ward made 27 stops in the win.
2004 – Playoff opening win
Red Deer finished second in the Central Division and met the Calgary Hitmen in the opening round. Three points separated the teams in the regular-season standings.
The opening game went to the Rebels as they took down the Hitmen 4-0. Cam Ward had a 37 save shutout.
There were four different scorers for the Rebels as Joel Henituik, Ladislav Kouba, Colin Fraser, and Shay Stephenson tallied. Henituik’s goal at 14:31 of the first period stood up as the game-winner. Red Deer was 2-for-6 on the power play, Calgary was 0-for-5 as the teams combined for 84 minutes in penalties.
2005 – Overtime magic
With the 2004-05 season winding down the Rebels were chasing the Calgary Hitmen for third in the Central Division. A win would help them come close, but this game turned out to be a three-point game.
Red Deer scored early, then fell behind. A third-period power play tied the game at three and sent it to overtime. Future NHLer Dion Phaneuf scored the winner 2:20 into overtime to give the Rebels the extra point. The other goals came from Joel Henituik (2) and Ashton Rome.
Andrew Leslie made 21 saves in the win.
2006 – Season cleanup
It was a disappointing end to the season for the Red Deer Rebels as they narrowly missed the playoffs despite a 6-3-0-1 run to finish. Their last game of the year came against a Lethbridge Hurricanes squad that was stumbling to a third-place finish in the Central Division.
Red Deer eeked out a 4-3 victory over Lethbridge with two goals from Cam Cunning. Kris Versteeg and Brett Sutter notched the other two tallies in the win. Sutter’s goal was the eventual game-winner despite pressure from the Hurricanes in the dying minutes of the game. Josh Lepp was victorious, stopping 22-of-25 shots sent his way.
2011 – More season wrap up
With the Division title recently locked up, the Rebels faced off against the Oil Kings in the final game of the 2010-11 season. The two teams were also destined to meet in the first round of the WHL playoffs.
In this game, the Rebels came out on top, 3-1. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice, including the game-winner. Brett Ferguson added an empty-net goal with 71 seconds remaining to seal the win.
Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves in the win.
2016 – Wrapping up the Memorial Cup regular season
The Rebels were fighting all season to secure the division title that would help them on their playoff road. Unfortunately, they fell just one point short of that goal even with a win over the Edmonton Oil Kings on their final night of the season.
Red Deer took it to Edmonton in this game scoring four times in the first period before closing out the game and a 7-2 win. Colton Bobyk and Austin Pratt had two goals apiece and Adam Helewka had the game winner at 15:25 of the first period. The other goals came from Luke Philp and Jeff de Wit.
Trevor Martin started the game and made 21 saves on 21 shots, Dawson Weatherill made 10 saves on 12 shots in the third period.
2017 – Overtime loss to Edmonton
Red Deer was headed to the playoffs as the final game of the season was held in Edmonton, the Oil Kings were not. The game had little meaning to either team as they could not move up or down in the standings.
With not much on the line, an exciting game for the fans saw the Oil Kings beat Red deer 5-4 in overtime.
Riley Lamb was between the pipes for the Rebels making 32 saves in the loss.
Red Deer had goals from Brandon Hagel (2), Evan Polei, and Austin Glover. Riley Stadel had the game-winner for Edmonton at 3:25 of overtime.
