Early in the season, most WHL teams are trying to figure out their identities.
With teams like the Swift Current Broncos and the Red Deer Rebels looking at 2018-19 as a rebuilding or retooling year, they may not find their identities until the Christmas break or later.
Both teams are struggling early in the season, entering the game at 0-3 for the Broncos and 1-2 for the Rebels. It was time to let the young back up goaltenders to have their shot at finding a win for their team.
Byron Fancy had played in just two WHL games before tonight. Last year he was credited with an overtime loss after playing 62 minutes and allowing five goals. He was 1-1-1-0 in this year’s preseason.
For the Broncos Isaac Poulter made his WHL regular season debut. He was 1-1-0-0 in the preseason.
Great first impressions
Both goaltenders had an excellent first period as neither would allow a shot to get past them. Fancy had to make nine saves for the Rebels while Poulter made 15 saves for the Broncos. The Rebels had the majority of the scoring chances, three of them were on breakaways that the Rebels just could not capitalize on.
Unfortunately for the Broncos, an early second period penalty by Poulter would result in a power play goal for the Rebels. It was their 17th shot on net.
Another penalty would result in another Rebels power play goal, this time a point shot from Dawson Barteaux would sneak past everyone and give the Rebels a 2-0 lead with a little over 11 minutes to play in the second stanza.
After killing off a penalty of their own the Rebels’ fourth line had a terrific chance on a three-on-two rush.
Austin Schellenberg’s first of the season put the Rebels up 3-0 with 15:53 to play in the third period. It was the Rebels 24th shot on Poulter.
A minute and a half later, Zak Smith scored his first career WHL goal to give the Rebels a 4-0 lead.
Short handed with 11:50 left, Josh Tarzwell would put the fifth Rebels goal behind Poulter.
An awful giveaway by Alexeyev late in the third period broke Fancy’s shutout bid. Matthew Culling would be the first goal scorer for the Broncos since they traded away Kaden Elder. It was their first goal since 11:05 of the second period in their season opener, a stretch of over 200 minutes.
With 6:11 to play the Rebels took two minor penalties on the same shift, Carson Sass and Brandon Hagel were the recipients of a trip to the sin bin.
Exactly one minute into the five-on-three, the Broncos would score their second goal of the game. This time the goal scorer was Connor Horning.
“It was a great game tonight, we out played them the whole game, the boys came to play,” said Byron Fancy after his first WHL win.
“I felt good, I was a little nervous at the start, first regular season game this year. After the first period, first ten minutes I felt good in there.” when he was asked about how he felt in between the pipes.
“Getting a few pucks on me helped calm me down a bit” he continued.
The Broncos wouldn’t make it close enough to pull Poulter and so the game would end with the Rebels picking up their second straight win by a final score of 5-2.
Both goalies gave their coaching staffs something to think about, good or bad, the impressions were made.
Head Coach Brent Sutter was also happy with Fancy’s game overall.
“He played well, he was really solid,” said Sutter. “He was just solid, he didn’t give up much.”
“He made some key saves at certain times. There wasn’t a lot of big, quality chances, but the ones that were there he had to be sharp on.” Sutter added
Rebel Yell… Red Deer finishes up their three games in three nights Sunday with a game in Calgary against the Hitmen. The Rebels power play went 2-for-5 while the penalty kill was 5-of-6, and also had a short handed marker. Ethan Reginer was 16-of-22 in the faceoff dot, Reese Johnson was 15-of-19. The Rebels are now 2-2-0-0 on the season and sit in third place in the Central Division.
