When the opposing team comes into your barn and scores a goal before two minutes have passed, it is often a sign of not being ready.
At times, it can lead to a goalie being pulled early, or it can lead to a quick turnaround for the home team. Other times it just leads to more poor play.
That was the case tonight for the Red Deer Rebels as the team gave up three goals before the end of the first period before bowing out 5-1.
Riley Sawchuk opened the scoring for the Oil Kings just 1:56 into the game. The Rebels coughed up the puck trying to exit their own zone, and Jake Neighbours tossed the puck to David Kope. Kope then made a second pass to Sawchuk. His shot beat Ethan Anders, and his sixth goal of the season gave Edmonton an early 1-0 lead.
With just over 10 minutes to play, the Oil Kings scored on a tip-in.
Jalen Luypen tipped a Keagan Slaney point shot past Anders. Slaney’s assist was the first point of his WHL career. Luypen’s second goal of the year was the eventual game winner.
Less than three minutes later, a giveaway in the Rebels slot landed on Josh Williams’ stick and he made no mistake in putting the puck past Anders.
“It was basically three freebies. You turn the puck over inside the blue line on the first goal and allow a 3-on-2 inside. Bad positional play on the second one — we run around and they get a clear shot from the point,” Rebels general manager and head coach Brent Sutter said.
“I thought the first period hurt us. When you put yourself down three in the first, it makes it tough to come back against a team like that,” Sutter said.
It was only 5:18 into the second period when the Edmonton Oil Kings onslaught continued.
Anders gave up a huge rebound on a shot by Scott Atkinson that went right to Vladimir Alistrov, and he buried the puck into the wide open net.
Just one minute and three seconds later on the power play, Matthew Robertson‘s shot from the circle to the left of Anders sailed into the back of the net for a 5-0 Oil Kings lead. The Oil Kings power play needed only eight seconds to work its magic.
That was the end of the night for Anders as he was replaced by Byron Fancy.
With little more than four minutes to play in the second period, Chase Leslie scored his first of the season. He was sent in all alone on a pass from Zak Smith. His deke move worked enough to open up the five-hole of Sebastian Cossa, and the puck slid through the pads to the back of the net.
A much more even third period was played between the division rivals, with nothing doing for either team. Edmonton outshot Red Deer 10-7 in the final 20 minutes and 39-22 overall.
Despite the outcome, Sutter hoped the team was able to take away some key elements from the game.
“I keep saying it — it’s gotta be another learning curve for us,” said Sutter. “We hope we’re learning from it. I was telling the players, we thought we had a really, really good week of practice. Probably the best we’ve had all year. When you work on those things, you gotta implement them in the game. When we did it, we were pretty solid. When we get away from that and try and play east-west hockey and we get soft on pucks, then you start having turnovers and spend too much time in your own zone. That happened at different points. When we did it the right way, we were fine.”
Rebel Yell.. The three stars on the night were Riley Sawchuk (1G 1A), Chase Leslie (1G), and Josh Williams (1G, 1A). Fancy replaced Anders with 13:41 to play in the second period. He did not allow a goal on 16 shots. Edmonton was 1-for-5 with the man advantage; Red Deer was 0-for-5. Jake Neighbours led all players with 5 shots on net. Chris Douglas was the top faceoff man, winning 10-of-14. Edmonton’s next game is at home against the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday, October 25th. Red Deer suits up with the Regina Pats on Saturday night for Socky Night in Red Deer.
