Rebels complete epic comeback in Medicine Hat in double-overtime
By DANNY RODE
MEDICINE HAT – It wasn’t the start the Red Deer Rebels would have liked, but the end was quite the opposite.
The Rebels overcame a 4-0 deficit to down the Medicine Hat Tigers 5-4 in double overtime to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven WHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.
The game was played before 4,522 fans at Co-Op Place.
Kalan Lind played the role of hero, collecting a lose puck in the slot and scoring on a screened Ethan McCallum 1:15 into the second extra frame.
“The guys stuck with it, not one point did the energy faulter,” said Rebels head coach Dave Struch. “With it going into overtime we got a lot of minutes from guys who may not have expected it … so a lot of credit to the entire group.”
The Rebels fell behind 3-0 in the opening period on goals by Oasiz Wiesblatt, Andrew Basha and Gavin McKenna and 4-0 by the 2:04 mark of the middle stanza when Josh Van Mulligen beat Red Deer starting netminder Chase Wutzke.
“They have a really good, elite, skilled quality team and they took it to us right off the hop,” said Struch.
But that’s when things started to turn in Red Deer’s favour.
Wutzke refused to allow another goal, the defensive effort picked up and the Red Deer’s best players were their best players offensively.
“Wutzke was real good at key points,” said Struch, “and the investment in what we did over the past three weeks in practice, and the way we practiced, was a big part of it.”
Your game one double overtime hero @kacolind13 🙌 #RDREBELS | #WHLPlayoffs | #FeedingTheFuture pic.twitter.com/yyVqv0ZGhM
— X – Red Deer Rebels (@Rebelshockey) March 30, 2024
Rebels captain and leading scorer, Kai Uchacz, gave the Red Deer crew some momentum when he swept home a pass from Lind, who won a battle behind the Medicine Hat net, at 7:58 of the second period.
Carson Latimer narrowed the gap to 4-2 when his pass from the side of the net deflected in off a Medicine Hat defender at 14:08 on a powerplay.
Both teams picked up their defence in the third period, but Mats Lindgren had his wrist shot from the left point sneak past McCallum at 7:29 and Ollie Josephson was left alone in front, taking a pass from Hunter Mayo and going forehand to backhand to tie it at 14:10.
Bot teams had only six shots in the third period. Red Deer was outshot 8-2 in the first overtime with Wutzke making a series of solid saves late in the frame.
Then on the first shot in the second extra session, Lind ended it.
“We can take everything from tonight and use it tomorrow,” added Struch. “We went through and lot of different experiences which was good for our group … bottle up that energy and pour it out on the game tomorrow.”
Struch knows the Tigers will be even tougher in game two.
“We can expect the same type of effort from them … expect a big push back because they are that good,” he said. “We just have to be ready. We talked about playing as a group … as a team and getting efforts from a lot of guys.
“Credit to the guys tonight … to the leadership group and when you have guys who do the right things because of those leaders that’s important.”
ICE CHIPS – Wutzke finished with 38 saves while McCallum had 29 … Lind, who also had a pair of assists and was plus three, was the game’s first star with Uchacz, who had a helper to go with his 12th career playoff goal, was second star and Basha third star … The Rebels were one-for-six on the power play with the Tigers zero-for-three … The last overtime playoff game between the two teams was March 29, 2015 … Uchacz and Josephson took the majority of the face offs for the Rebels, both winning 21 of 39 … Game 2 is Saturday at 7 p.m. in Medicine Hat with Game 3 and 4 at the Red Deer Peavey Mart Centrium Tuesday and Wednesday … Rebels lineup looked a lot stronger with defenceman Matteo Fabrizi back along with forwards Frantisek Formanek and Carson Birnie … Cayden Lindstrom returned for the Tigers after missing 36 games and had an assist.
