Andy Devlin

Third period collapse sinks Rebels

 

You couldn’t have drawn up a much better game plan for the Red Deer Rebels for the first 50 minutes of the season’s opening game.

“I thought we did some really good things, I just thought we were on it, as far as on the puck, and finishing checks. You know for the most part we were pretty good in our own zone. We were smart with the puck, played the game simple,” said Red Deer Rebels General Manager and Head Coach Brent Sutter.

Red Deer out scored Medicine Hat 3-1 through through 40 minutes, with 18-year-old Jayden Grubbe scoring the Rebels first goal of the shortened season.

Ethan Rowland (photo-Andy Devlin)

Forward Ethan Rowland and Defenseman Kyle Masters also tallied for the Rebels, while Medicine Hat Tigers’ Nick McCarry scored the WHL’s very first goal.

Early in the third period Red Deer extended it’s lead on a break-away goal by Chris Douglas.

Things fell apart for Red Deer following the fourth goal.

Corson Hopwo got things started for the Tigers at the 9:23 mark of the third period.

Hopwo scored again to make it 4-3, this time on the powerplay.

“We stopped working, I thought we took a bad penalty after the whistle and they capitalized on that one,” added Sutter.

With time winding down in the game, Medicine Hat pulled their goalie.

“6-on-4 when they pulled their goalie, and you need to be smarter at that point in time, just undisciplined is the best way to put it, continued Sutter.

“I just thought the last 10 minutes we stopped moving our feet and started getting sloppy and getting away from things we’ve been working on the last two weeks to play the game the right way.”

Lukas Svejkovsky took advantage of a poor clearing attempt deep in the Rebels’ zone and scored short side on Ethan Anders to knot the game at four with under 60 seconds left to play.

“You got four straight goals scored against you just we did not play the right way in our own zone defensively in the third period.” added Chris Douglas.

“There’s always going to be ups and downs throughout games but you can’t have that happen especially at the end of the game in the third period when you’re pushing to take the win. Its unacceptable really.”

As the teams headed to overtime, the ice had been tilted fully in favour of the Tigers. With the teams playing 3-on-3, Red Deer continued the sloppy play that got them into trouble towards the end of regulation time.

On a strange play, the Tigers Hopwo completed his hat trick while himself, Anders and a Rebels defenseman ended up in the back of the net. After a lengthy discussion, the referees decided that the goal was good and Medicine Hat had completed the comeback.

“In overtime we had three turnovers and we had the puck on our stick and we turned the puck over three times and they end up getting quality scoring chances, obviously the last one went in the net,”

“Our defense is very young and they just gotta move pucks up the ice. For 50 minutes they were good, the last 10 minutes they just started trying to be pretty with the puck,” added Sutter.

Game notes:

Medicine Hat led in the faceoff dot, winning 41 of 77 draws led by Ryan Chyzowski (14-of-24). Chris Douglas was Red Deer’s best (9-for-17). Red Deer outshot Medicine Hat 33-31, Ethan Rowland had five shots, Corson Hopwo had seven to lead all players. Medicine Hat was 1-for-4 with the man-advantage, Red Deer was 1-for-5. The two teams will meet tomorrow night in Medicine Hat at the Co-Op Place for the second game of the home and home series.