Calgary Hitmen vs Red Deer Rebels – Nov 26, 2010
Late goal leads Rebels to 4-3 win over Hitmen
By Laurence Heinen
hitmenhockey.com
CALGARY, AB. – It appeared as if the Calgary Hitmen were heading to overtime on Friday night against the Red Deer Rebels.
Only problem was that nobody gave that memo to Red Deer forward Adam Kambeitz, who scored with 1.4 seconds left on the clock to give the Rebels a 4-3 victory.
“Obviously that’s a back-breaker to give one up that late in the game,” said a disappointed Hitmen head coach Mike Williamson following the setback that dropped Calgary’s record to 6-18-1-0.
Kris Foucault scored a pair of power-play goals for the Hitmen, including one at 17:09 of the final frame to tie the game at 3-3 before Kambeitz’s late goal won the game for the Rebels (17-7-1-2).
“That’s a tough one,” said Foucault of the late goal the Hitmen surrendered. “It looked like the (period) was over and it went in. We have to back-check. We have to do everything like there’s 10 minutes left still. We have to play like it’s desperation every time.”
For the second game in a row, the Hitmen also gave up an early goal, this time to Red Deer forward Andrej Kudrna at the 30 second mark of the first period.
“We’ve got to stop letting up goals on the first shift,” said Foucault. “It’s been twice in a row and we’ve lost two games in a row.”
“It’s a fundamental breakdown,” noted Williamson. “We started running around trying to put out a fire where it didn’t need to be put out. It leads to someone being open on the ice. It was the same thing the other night.”
The Hitmen battled back as Foucault scored during a man advantage at 4:37 of the first before Cody Sylvester scored at 11:26 of the second to give Calgary a 2-1 advantage.
The lead was short lived though as Turner Elson notched a shorthanded goal for the Rebels just over two minutes later before defenceman Mathew Dumba notched a power-play goal at 5:46 of the third to put the visitors up by a goal.
Red Deer goalie Darcy Kuemper had to make just 12 saves as he improved his record to 17-4-2. Meanwhile, Calgary netminder Juraj Holly stopped 21 of 25 shots he faced in a losing cause.
The Hitmen will wrap up their mini two-game homestand on Saturday night (7 p.m., Fan 960) when they host the Edmonton Oil Kings.
“We’ve taken so many strides in the past few games,” lamented Foucault after the game. “We’re just going to keep moving forward. We’ve got to have short memories. We play tomorrow. We’ll be in here tomorrow at 10 a.m. watching a little bit of video. We’re not going to dwell on it too much.”
THREE STARS
1. Mathew Dumba, Rebels
2. Kris Foucault, Hitmen
3. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Rebels
REBELS 4 at HITMEN 3
First period
1. Calgary, Kudrna 14 (Persson, Nugent-Hopkins) 0:30
Penalties – Fisenko Cal (hooking) 1:03, Dumba RD (tripping) 2:48, Archer RD (double high-sticking) 5:00, Archer RD (hooking) 13:14, Cheek Cal (hooking) 14:20.
Second period
2. Calgary, Foucault 6 (MacKenzie) 4:37 (pp)
3. Calgary, Sylvester 8 (Cheek) 11:26
4. Red Deer, Elson 9 (Archer) 13:43 (sh)
Penalties – Pufahl RD (checking from behind) 2:56, Grayson RD, Berg Cal (fighting), Petrovic RD (interference) 12:29, Borejko RD, Cheek Cal (roughing) 13:16, Weller RD (tripping) 14:12.
Third period
5. Red Deer, Dumba 7 (Ferguson, Siwak) 5:46 (pp)
6. Calgary, Foucault 7 (MacKenzie, Fisenko) 17:09 (pp)
7. Red Deer, Kambeitz 9 (Cowen, Weller) 19:58
Penalties – Gayle Cal (hooking) 1:16, MacKenzie Cal (hooking) 5:29, Petrovic RD (tripping) 16:46.
Shots on goal by:
Red Deer 4 7 14 – 25
Calgary 4 8 3 – 15
Goal – Red Deer: Kuemper (W, 17-4-1); Calgary: Holly (L, 1-6-0).
Power plays (goals-chances) – RD: 1-4; Cal: 2-8.
Referees – Steve Papp. Linesmen – Sean Donnelly, Jeff Jobson .
Attendance: 7,710.
