Over the first 47 games of the season the Red Deer Rebels scored 164 goals. A pretty good pace of 3.49 goals per game.
Problem is they’ve forgotten how to score over their last 12 games with just 19 goals to show for it, that’s just 1.58 goals per game. Teams won’t win many Western Hockey League games when they can’t put pucks in the net.
Head coach Brent Sutter addressed the recent lack of scoring following tonight’s game, “Guys are fighting it. They gotta be able to do other things too, if they are not scoring they gotta chip in in other areas to help the team be successful.”
“I knew at the start of the year we would probably have it tough at certain points scoring but that’s where certain individuals have to step up and be better at that. There are no easy goals in this game you gotta score you gotta work you gotta compete and battle in tough areas we’ve got guys that still have to learn to do that”, continued Sutter.
Because of this recent stretch, the Rebels have fallen behind in the playoff race, the team sat two points behind the Brandon Wheat Kings for the final playoff position before the night’s game got underway.
Edmonton came into the night’s contest as the division leaders and winners of seven of their last 10 games, including a huge 2-1 win the night before against the same Red Deer Rebels.
Their division lead had shrunk to just two points so they too were hungry for a big two points.
The scoring drought continued for the Rebels in the first 20 minutes. Edmonton was able to find the back of the net twice, once on a play that was not called a goal originally and another shortly after.
Vince Loschiavo had the first Oil Kings goal, his 28th. Loschiavo was streaking down the side of the ice and his rocket of a shot beat Ethan Anders and flew out of the net so fast the referee originally waived it off. At the whistle and after a short review, the shot was deemed a goal.
Less than four minutes later and with the Rebels a man short, Parker Gavlas scored his first ever WHL goal. The defenseman walked in from the point and fired a shot from the top of the circle over Anders’ shoulder. The Oil Kings headed to the dressing room with a comfortable 3-0 lead.
Before the second period was half over, the Oil Kings added to their lead.
Trey Fix-Wolansky scored his 30th goal of the season on the power play to make it 3-0. He pulled the trigger on a shot from the faceoff dot to the left of Anders and Fix-Wolansky’s shot made no mistake hitting the mesh for the three goal lead.
That’s how the game stood after 40 minutes.
Very early in the third period the Oil Kings made it 4-0 when a puck hit the skates of Dawson Barteaux in front of Anders and went right to Andrei Pavlenko. He made no mistake burying the puck and extending his team’s lead to four goals.
50 seconds later while shorthanded, Ethan Sakowich collected his second goal of the season. Jeff de Wit’s clean faceoff win sent the puck to Sakowich, and his point shot fooled Myskiw and cut the lead to three.
The woes continued on the ice for the Rebels as the Oil Kings again added to their lead.
5:13 into the third period Vladimir Alistrov scored his 10th goal of the season after a feed from behind the net. Alistrov was all alone in front of the Rebels net and Pavlenko placed the pass perfectly on to his stick.
Scoring came at a premium for the Rebels and tonight it was another shorthanded marker to cap the game off.
With just three seconds remaining in the period Oleg Zaytsev scored his 12th of the season. The Russian was sent in all alone on Myskiw and beat him short side.
“It’s pretty obvious, we are not where we need to be as a team. We just didn’t get a full load here tonight with everyone playing to the standards that they need to play at,” opined Sutter.
“You look at the Portland game back on the road, that’s the last game where we had a consistent effort. We didn’t have it in Tri (Tri-City), we didn’t get it last night in spurts and tonight we didn’t get it at all. It’s obviously something we have to correct quickly here, it’s going to be a long summer,” said Sutter finishing his scrum
The final score was Oil Kings 5 Rebels 2.
Following the game there was a lengthy meeting in the Rebels locker room.
The Rebels head back out on the road for the next four games and don’t play in Red Deer again until March 8th.
Rebel Yell… The three stars were Vladimir Alistrov, Dylan Myskiw and Ethan Sakowich. Oleg Zaytsev was the leading faceoff winner for both teams, he was 10-of-14. Oil Kings defenseman Conner McDonald had 5 shots to lead both teams. With the loss Red Deer remains two points behind the Brandon Wheat Kings for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Brandon lost 7-1 to Prince Albert. Red Deer has a game in hand.
