Kent, WA – The crazy road trip for the Red Deer Rebels (29-20-4-1) continued on Friday night as they traveled to Kent to take on the Seattle Thunderbirds (22-27-5-1). They were fresh off a 2-1 shootout win over the Western Conference leading Everett Silvertips the night before.
They would not find as much luck lower in the Puget Sound region, losing to Seattle 6-4.
Both Seattle and Red Deer are in the midst of three games in three nights. Playing that much hockey, you hope for some production from your depth.
Seattle head coach Matt O’Dette liked the production from across the lineup.
”We talk about that, guys need to step up and chip in. Power play chipped in with one that is always nice when the power play can do that. Obviously a huge boost getting (Nolan) Volcan in there,” O’Dette said.
The Thunderbirds were led by two goals and an assist from Henry Rybinski. They also got a two goals from Matthew Wedman and two assists from Sean Richards..
The three-point night was Rybinski’s second with the team that acquired him from Medicine Hat around the trade deadline.
Seattle’s aggressive style seems to fit well with the speedy Rybinski.
“I like to go really hard on the ice, especially on the forecheck. Chip pucks in deep and make things as difficult as I can for them. That is how we play. We play a really aggressive game and it fits more,” Rybinski said.
The Thunderbirds got some energy early off a strong shift by a fourth line unit that had team captain Volcan added to it. Shortly thereafter they got on the score sheet. Volcan had missed nine games with a wrist injury.
The addition of Volcan to the lineup was an unexpected one.
”He had a doctor’s appointment early in the week and he was basically greenlighted based on how he felt. He wanted to go. I think we know (Volcan) is a warrior. He had a couple practices and was good to go,” O’Dette said.
“It’s refreshing. To have guys who want to be in there when they are not 100 percent. That is what captains do.”
They opened the scoring 7:45 into the game as, off a turnover, Noah Philp tucked in a shot by Red Deer goalie Byron Fancy.
Turnovers would be a problem all night for the Rebels.
“We feel that sometimes when things don’t go our way we have a lot of good kids on our team and they want to do everything they can to help us win,” said Rebels associate coach Brad Flynn about the team’s propensity to give up the puck tonight.
“Sometimes they try to do a little bit more than they should and that’s just part of the growing process but now we’re in February we gotta know that when it gets tougher we gotta simplify and that means getting pucks a little deeper and getting heavier on our forecheck and we just got away from that tonight and it was too much one-on-one hockey and we weren’t winning our one-on-one battles.” continued Flynn
Red Deer’s fourth line came right out and tied the game.
37 seconds after Seattle’s first goal, Zak Smith returned the favour. He accepted a pass from behind the net from Alex Morozoff and his shot evaded Seattle goalie Roddy Ross.
Ross stopped 26-of-30 shots for his ninth win since being signed in early January.
Seattle regained the lead 3:34 into the middle frame. Alexander Alexeyev lost a battle with Richards and the overage winger flew in on a two-on-one rush. He slid the puck over to Wedman, who buried the chance for his 21st of the season.
With the teams getting feisty and the penalties piling up, the Rebels penalty kill was put to the test. Eight seconds into a Chris Douglas holding call, the Thunderbirds added to their lead with Rybinski’s fourth goal of the season.
The marker was an attestation of a commitment to shooting for the 17-year-old winger.
“I want to use my shot more so d-men are guessing. I think I’ve always been more of a pass-first kind of guy. I need to shoot more so they are guessing. Sometimes I‘ve been forcing passes when I need to shoot pucks,” Rybinski said.
Then another turnover led to a prime scoring chance for Seattle. Slovakian import Andrej Kukuca picked off a pass in the slot and buried a shot by Fancy for the 4-1 lead.
The Thunderbirds big period continued shortly thereafter as Graeme Bryks and Rybinski worked hard in the offensive zone and Rybinski put home his second of the night.
Seattle out shot Red Deer 19-9 in the period and scored four straight to take a 5-1 lead after 40 minutes.
O’Dette was pleased with how his team came out and competed in the second.
“We were pretty relentless on the puck in the o-zone. Everytime their d(efense) tried to get it out, we were on the pretty good, creating turnovers. Once they got it out in the neutral zone, we got it back in quickly and didn’t allow them to change. We had them hemmed in for good stretches of that period. All that adds up and is part of breaking a team down – leads to chances.”
Red Deer got some life 3:30 into the third as Alexeyev took a pass from Josh Tarzwell right as he came out of the box and buried a slap shot by Ross.
1:33 later, Brandon Hagel patiently waited for a streaking Oleg Zaytsev to get himself into the Seattle zone. His patience paid off as Zaytsev was rewarded with a short breakaway and he put the puck past Ross to draw back to within two goals.
Things got even more interesting late as Reese Johnson poked home his 21st of the season.
The comeback was not to be though. Wedman put the game away with his second of the night – this one into an empty net with Fancy pulled for an extra attacker.
“I thought that we showed a lot of heart in terms of getting an opportunity or a chance to put ourselves in an opportunity to win there at the end. Again it is way too big of a lead to dig yourself that deep of a hole. That comes down to courage and playing a good road game and sticking to a structure. We need to have a better effort out of a lot more guys than we had to night.” said Rebels associate coach Flynn about the third period comeback.
Notes:
-Red Deer was 0-for-3 on the power play, while Seattle was 1-of-5.
-Fancy turned away 38-of-43 shots in his first start since February 2nd.
-Red Deer’s trip continues tomorrow night as they travel down interstate five and take on the well rested Portland Winterhawks. They will be playing their third game in three nights, while the Winterhawks have not played since Sunday.
-“Whenever you are playing your third game in three nights the most important thing is that you gotta limit your mistakes and you gotta stick to your game plan because if you get away from your game plan like you see tonight you end up chasing the game and you end up wasting a lot more energy and you end up turning over the puck like we talked about tonight so anytime you are playing a back-to-back or three-in-three you gotta play real smart hockey and you gotta play a real team game in terms of sticking to the plan and sacrificing your individual success for the team success and obviously Portland is a very well coached team with a lot of very talented players and they are a real good team in this division they have been good all year. We have to make sure we have total buy-in tomorrow night and we have a lot of courage and we stick to our game plan,” Flynns aid about the challenge.
-Attendance was 4,575.
