Dave Brunner

Quick start just enough for Rebels to hang on 4-3 over the Wheat Kings

It was nearly a repeat performance for the Red Deer Rebels as the team needed five saves from Byron Fancy in the final 30 seconds to hold off the hard-charging Brandon Wheat Kings.

“He’s been working his butt off lately, and it’s been showing that he’s ready to be a player in this league and he’s got every right to. He’s been playing great,” said Arshdeep Bains who was the game’s first star of the night.

The game started off great for Red Deer once again as the team staked themselves to an early lead and kept the goals coming throughout the first period.

Just 1:26 into the opening period, Arshdeep Bains tipped an incredible shot off the stick of Christoffer Sedoff. Wheat Kings goalie Jiri Patera had little opportunity to change course as the puck bounced down and between his pads. The Rebels scored first for the eighth time this season.

The goal was Bains’ fourth of the campaign.

On their first power play of the game, Red Deer hit pay dirt. With Patera screened, a Dawson Barteaux point shot trickled through his pads and just over the goal line. A quick review determined the Rebels had extended their lead to two.

Before the first period was finished, Ethan Rowland got the jump on a faceoff deep in the Wheat Kings end. He followed the puck to Patera and tucked it under the goalie’s blocker on the backhand to send the team to the locker room up 3-0.

The second period was still under Red Deer control early.

For the second night in a row, Josh Tarzwell scored, picking his eighth goal of the season. Red Deer had a commanding lead of four goals.

Then the tide began to turn as the team took three penalties in a row. Brandon scooped up some momentum and outshot Red Deer 13-5 in the period.

On the third man advantage, Brandon broke the shutout bid for Byron Fancy. Ben McCartney scooped up a rebound in front of Fancy and cut the Wheat Kings deficit to three goals.

The crowd of 3,794 was quiet as they were witnessing the team making a heel turn once again — back on their heels, that is.

The third period started out alright for the Rebels, but as the clock wound down, the Wheat Kings again began relentlessly forechecking and working the cycle in the Rebels end.

Cole Reinhardt made a game of it with nine minutes left in the third period.

On their sixth power play of the night and with just four seconds left in the man advantage, Fancy was beaten for the second time.

“We played pretty well, then we started taking penalties and it took the momentum away from us,” Sutter said.

“You sit in the box and they score one to make it 4-2 and we had the 5-on-3 and we don’t capitalize and didn’t make much of our power play and they get an unfortunate goal against us. And all of a sudden, it’s a tight game. We’ve been in a lot of those going into the last minute and a half this year … found a way to win. We’ll take the points. Every point is big.”

The Wheat Kings pulled their goalie for the sixth attacker with two minutes to play and, shortly after, pulled to within a goal on a diving play by Reinhardt. As he was falling between two Rebel defenseman, he tipped the puck through the legs of Fancy who was making his way out of the crease to make a poke check.

The rink fell silent.

Brandon did everything they could with Patera once again pulled from the net. Five shots were put towards Fancy and he made stop after stop in the final 30 seconds to seal the second win in three games for the Rebels.

“We need those saves. A couple of goals I’m sure he would have liked to have back. He made the big saves down the stretch when we needed it, especially in the last minute and 36 seconds. He played big,” said Rebels general manager and head coach Brent Sutter.

It was Fancy’s second win of the season.

Rebel Yell…

The three stars in the building were 1) Arshdeep Bains 2) Ben King 3) Byron Fancy. The Rebels were outshot 40-25 despite leading 11-6 after 20 minutes. Ben McCartney had 7 for the Wheat Kings, Dawson Barteaux 4 for the Rebels. Jayden Grubbe was the faceoff dot king for the second night in a row, winning 9 of his 14 draws. Brandon was 2-for-5 on the power play; Red Deer was 1-for-4. Arshdeep Bains has 5 points over his last 3 games. Red Deer will suit up on Wednesday night as they host the Prince Albert Raiders. Brandon will be moving on to take on the Edmonton Oil Kings on Sunday afternoon.