An early-season nemesis has appeared for the Red Deer Rebels.
The shootout has not been kind to the team over the last week with losses coming to the Regina Pats and now the Seattle Thunderbirds.
It was another winnable game for the young team as they scored first and held a 2-1 lead through much of the second period.
Mental lapses cost the Rebels dearly, as the team found themselves taking four minor penalties in a row.
“The first half of the game, we were in really good shape and I thought we were playing well. We took three minor penalties in just under six minutes and they got some momentum off that. I didn’t think we played as well after that point,” said Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter.
“We gave them some life, they got skating and moving and we got on our heels a little bit. We battled hard to get back in the last four minutes.”
Red Deer was first on the board, Ethan Sakowich scored his third goal of the season. From the half wall, Sakowich threw the puck towards the Seattle net. Roddy Ross did not see enough of the puck as it sailed by him.
Seattle didn’t wait long to return the favor. Just 1:25 later Jared Davidson scored to tie the contest.
Jamming home a loose puck Davidson collected his second goal of the year. The play started with a big shot from Matthew Wedman. The puck bounced around the crease area and the last to get his stick on it was Davidson and it counted for the Thunderbirds.
A pretty dominant period by the home side resulted in just a single goal for each team. The Rebels had to be happy with putting 17 shots on the Thunderbirds. The team also surrendered 13 shots but none of them were high-danger shots.
Early in the second period, the Rebels import defenseman Christoffer Sedoff got the team the lead back. His wrist shot from the point had some extra zip on it. A screened Ross did not have much of an opportunity to see the puck and bent the twine behind him. It was Sedoff’s first WHL goal, and it came on the man advantage.
Then the tide began to turn. Red Deer played a disciplined game until that point. Four straight minor penalties became the undoing of the team as the penalty killers had a difficult time getting off the ice and used up a lot of their energy.
“It just takes you out of the flow. You use only certain guys killing penalties and they then get wore down. You look at your defense, you only have two experienced defencemen back there,” Sutter said.
“When you take penalties like that, it takes momentum away from you. Some guys have to play more than they should at key times. Especially late in the period.”
That momentum ended up on the stick of Andrej Kukuca and lit the lamp. Former Rebel Ryan Gottfried slid a pass to Kukuca who was parked at the side of the Rebel net. It was an easy redirect for the Thunderbirds leading point-getter, and the game was tied at two with 20 seconds remaining in the second period.
It looked as though the wind had been taken out of the sails of the home side early in the third period. Seattle came to play and scored two goals less than two minutes apart.
First, was the first WHL goal for Luke Bateman. A terribly-timed line change by Ethan Rowland led to Bateman charging in towards Ethan Anders. His move in tight gave the Thunderbirds their first lead of the game.
While playing four-on-four, the Thunderbirds struck again, this time due to a giveaway behind the Rebels net. Arshdeep Bains let Wedman take the puck and feed it to an open Henrik Rybinski. And just like that, the score was 4-2 Seattle.
Not to be outdone on the goals in succession, the Rebels found the strength to come back and tie the game on the stick of a hot Zak Smith.
A turnover in the Seattle end caused by Brett Davis led to the puck winding up on Smith’s stick. His quick wrist shot brought the home side to within a goal.
Just 16 seconds later it was Smith on a two-on-one with Josh Tarzwell. The pass was made from Tarwell to Smith in close, and Smith’s one-timer was in the Seattle net in a hurry.
The goals just 16 seconds apart were not quite a record for the Rebels as that record is held by Curtis Cardinal who scored twice in nine seconds on December 28, 1993.
Tie game.
There was nothing doing for either side in the extra five minutes of three-on-three overtime.
The shootout did produce the winner though. After both sides were unsuccessful in their first two attempts, Simon Kubicek scored for the Thunderbirds and Red Deer was unable to tie the skills competition.
Rebel Yell… The night’s three stars were 1) Matthew Wedman 2) Zak Smith 3) Henrik Rybinski. 3,933 fans took in the night’s action, as the Rebels embark on a six-game, 21-day break from Westerner Park Centrium. Rybinski and Wedman each had 7 shots at the Rebels net as the Thunderbirds outshot the Rebels 40-36. Red Deer was 1-for-4 with the man-advantage, Seattle was 0-for-4. Seattle heads up the QE2 highway to Edmonton to take on the Oil Kings while Red Deer won’t see action until next Friday night in Moose Jaw.
