Portland Winterhawks/Keith Dwiggins

Half game effort not enough as Rebels fall to Blades 4-3 in overtime

With six minor penalties taken before the game was 25 minutes old, the Red Deer Rebels could not create momentum.

After the Rebels got on the board first during a power play of their own, the team gave the Saskatoon Blades a lot of opportunities to stay in the game.

The result was an overtime loss to one of the teams they are currently chasing for a wild-card playoff spot.

“We were kind of two different teams,” said Red Deer Rebels General Manager/Head Coach Brent Sutter. “I wasn’t happy with our first half of the game — way too many minor penalties.

“We took six minor penalties in the first 25 minutes of the game and it takes you out of your flow and momentum. We had to play hard for the last 20 to get a point tonight. But that first half, you can’t take that many penalties, and they were penalties that are avoidable.”

“I thought we took too many penalties, but we stayed in there and took it to overtime,” said Arshdeep Bains.

Arshdeep Bains
(Photo – Dave Brunner)

“We did fight for those last 20 minutes but it can’t be a 20-minute game. We have to play the full 60. We had a good push in the third, but when it comes down to it, we didn’t win the game.”

That first goal was created by Christoffer Sedoff. His point shot hit Nolan Maier and created a massive rebound that Bains was able to capitalize on to give the team a 1-0 lead. The goal also gave Chris Douglas a four-game point streak.

It was also Douglas’ 200th WHL contest, all with the Rebels.

Five minutes later, Scott Walford got the Blades back to even with a power-play goal of their own. His point shot got past everyone including Rebels netminder Byron Fancy and the eighth goal of the season for Walford knotted the game at one apiece.

The penalty parade continued for the Rebels for much of the first period. The team spent nearly half of the twenty minutes in the penalty box. This included 53 seconds of five-on-three play. The penalty killers for Red Deer only allowed the one goal.

“I thought we missed some opportunity on our power play, especially on the five-on-three early in the game,” said temporary Saskatoon Blades Head Coach Ryan Marsh

“I was disappointed we weren’t able to generate a little more off that. We were focused on trying to get pucks at the net, generate some opportunities with some screens and some traffic and rebounds and tips.”

Three and a half minutes into the middle frame, the Rebels took the lead again on a seeing-eye shot from their leading scorer, Josh Tarzwell. Cameron Hausinger caused just enough commotion in the crease area to create a scoring chance but not enough to be called for goaltender interference. Tarzwell’s 18th goal made it 2-1.

Yet another penalty to the Rebels led to a second power-play goal for the Blades. This time it took just 10 seconds for Nolan Kneen to fire home a shot from the point and bring the teams back to even scores. Five minutes had barely ticked off the clock.

The Blades continued to force plays into the Rebels end, and it paid off when Kyle Crnkovic fired an impossible angle shot at the Rebels net. With 4:13 to play in the second period, Saskatoon had its first lead of the game.

Less than two minutes into the third period, the Rebels leading point-getter had his second goal of the night. Bains collected the puck in front of the net following some hard work from Rebels captain Dawson Barteaux who wrapped the puck around the back of the net and put it out front for Bains.

Red Deer continued to pressure Saskatoon for the duration of the third period but had no luck in taking the lead, despite outshooting the Blades 12-2.

“They pushed hard. They had purpose when they came out to start the third. They did a good job of getting pucks in deep and generating some offense off their offensive zone play. I thought they were really competitive all night. They did a really good job of getting pucks to the point and their forwards getting to the net and creating traffic at the net, creating tips at the net. We were fortunate Nolan (Maier) made some key stops for us at some key times,” said Marsh

Despite dominating the third period, the Rebels then mostly took a back seat in the extra frame. They gave up multiple chances to the Blades before Chase Wouters sealed the game. The Rebels blew their coverage, resulting in a two-on-one. Wouters’ 15th goal of the season sent the fans home disappointed.

“Obviously we are happy with the win. I thought our first two periods were ok, were pretty good. I thought we backed off a little bit in the third. As a whole, we are happy to get the two points,” said Marsh

“A bad break off the faceoff, ” said Sutter. “We knew what they were going to do off the draw and both our centre iceman and our winger just didn’t stay with their guys.”

The attempts to be fancy and make highlight style plays also played a part in the loss.

“We were way too pretty with certain things. We were trying to feather passes. We were trying to do spin-o-ramas and back passes,” Sutter said. “We have to stay away from that. We have to make sure we play the right way, do it the right way.

“We’re a team that, when we start doing that, we have turnovers. There’s a lot of good teams in this league and you just can’t play that way. I thought as the game went on, in the last few minutes of the second and in the third, we were really good. We played the right way.”

The 4-3 final meant that the Rebels only collected a single point in the chase for playoff positioning. The Brandon Wheat Kings and Saskatoon Blades — the teams they are chasing — each collected two points on Friday night.

Rebel Yell… The three stars in the building were 1) Arshdeep Bains 2) Scott Walford 3) Dawson Barteaux. Prior to the game, Barteaux was listed as questionable with an illness. Red Deer outshot Saskatoon 33-26. Josh Tarzwell led all shooters with 6. The top faceoff man was Brett Davis, who was 11-of-18. Despite 6 minor penalties for the Rebels, none came after the call at 4:53 of the second period. The team went 1-for-3 on the power play, while the Blades were 2-for-6. Red Deer moves on to action on Saturday against the Moose Jaw Warriors. Saskatoon plays Sunday afternoon in Edmonton.