Rebels stumble early, fall 5-2 to Vancouver
The Vancouver Giants league leading power play struck three times in the first period paving the way for a 5-2 win over the Red Deer Rebels Tuesday night at the Peavey Mart Centrium.
It was the second-straight game in which Red Deer stumbled out of the game. Unlike last Saturday versus Calgary, this time they couldn’t recover and saw their four-game win streak come to an end.
“I think we thought it was going to be easy,” suggested Rebels head coach Dave Struch.
“We came out in the first period, obviously we were really flat. It’s something that you obviously can learn from. It was bound to happen. You don’t really want it to happen this way, but it is something that you can look back and I think we shot ourselves in the foot right off the hop.”
STATS STORY
Mazden Leslie (VAN) – 1 goal, 3 assists
Ty Halaburda (VAN) – 1 goal, 1 assist
Matthew Hutchison (VAN) – 32 saves
HOW IT HAPPENED
Giants captain opened the scoring just over seven minutes into the game with Vancouver’s first power play tally.
Ty Halaburda added another man advantage marker at 16:35 on a shot from the slot past Rebels netminder Chase Wutzke.
Then in the dying seconds of the opening frame, Cameron Schmidt knocked a puck over Wutzke and in for yet another Giants power play goal and a 3-0 lead through twenty.
Cohen Poulin capitalized early in the second period to give Red Deer some life. Evan Smith set up the goal after forcing a turnover behind Vancouver’s net. Poulin’s third goal of the season, and his second in as many games, ties him for the team lead with Matthew Gard and Carson Birnie.
Cohen Poulin makes it three goals in his first six WHL games ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/BHRGixiCuN
— Red Deer Rebels (@Rebelshockey) October 9, 2024
Vancouver quickly snuffed out that momentum, however, with even strength goals 1:55 apart from Aaron Obofaio and Jakob Oreskovic for a commanding 5-1 Giants lead.
Hunter Mayo scored his second of the season late in the middle frame for what would be the game’s final goal.
Hard to put the puck in a better spot than that!
Hunter Mayo's got his second in his last three games ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/FNoID66Exq
— Red Deer Rebels (@Rebelshockey) October 9, 2024
Neither team scored in period three as the Giants handed the Rebels their first regulation loss.
Red Deer outshot Vancouver 34-28 and was 0-for-4 on the power play while the Giants were 3-for-3 to improve their WHL-best success rate to 42.3 percent.
THREE STARS
1. Leslie – VAN
2. Halaburda – VAN
3. Mayo – RD
WHAT THEY SAID
“Well, the penalty kill wasn’t very good,” lamented Struch. “A couple of bounces didn’t go our way, but still, we have a better group than to kill penalties like we did tonight. And then our power play, we had lots of opportunities, but you have to bear down.
“But that’s not what lost us the game here tonight, it was a flat group of guys. They found a way to get better as the game went on. But when you come out the way we did, it was going to be hard to come back.”
MILESTONES
Talon Brigley played his 200th career regular season games for the Rebels while forward Jaxon Fuder made his WHL debut after signing with the Rebels earlier this week.
NEXT UP
The Rebels are right back in action Wednesday night as they visit the Medicine Hat Tigers at 7 p.m. (106.7 Rewind Radio, CHL TV).
