Rebels disappointing in lopsided loss to Edmonton
By DANNY RODE
The Red Deer Rebels were looking to use their final two WHL regular season games to put themselves in the right frame of mind for the playoffs.
Dropping a 7-3 decision to the Edmonton Oil Kings before 6,360 fans at the Peavey Mart Centrium Saturday night did not help to accomplish said task.
“We saw a little bit of that in the first period, getting pucks in the right way,” said Rebels head coach Dave Struch. “Even though they got three goals off skates we were doing things the right way, but they didn’t find it in their game to continue with that … continue with that effort.”
The Rebels outshot the Oil Kings 10-6 in the opening frame, but were down 1-0 on an unfortunate break when Gracyn Sawchyn fell when cutting between the Red Deer defence and had the puck go off his skate under Red Deer netminder Chase Wutzke nine minutes into the period.
The Oil Kings took full control of the game in the middle stanza. They went ahead 2-0 just 55 seconds into the period when Marshall Finnie had the puck deflect off his leg while standing in the crease for his 20th of the season.
Adam Jecho then notched his 22nd of the year, and first of two on the night, when his pass from the left boards deflected in off a Red Deer defender’s skate with Red Deer killing off a two-man disadvantage.
“Those three were all off skates, but no excuses,” said Struch. “We needed to be energy takers, not givers, and we didn’t have enough of that tonight.”
Red Deer looked as if they would gain some of that energy and momentum at 9:03 when Jeramiah Roberts slammed home a loose puck during the scramble at the side of Edmonton rookie netminder Hudson Perry.
However, the Red Deer defence had a let down and Gavin Hodnett scored at 13:04 followed by Skylar Bruce at 18:42, both when left alone in the slot to one-time feeds from beside the net.
Roberts scored his second of the game and sixth of the season at 3:35 of period three when he cut in from right wing and snapped a quick wrister past Perry.
But once again the Oil Kings stormed back and Jecho at 4:21 and Smyth Redman at 5:33 all but put the finishing touches on Edmonton’s third straight win over the Rebels.
Mats Lindgren completed the scoring for the Rebels with a backhand shot from the high slot while on the power play at 14:48.
“It was certainly a disappointing loss after three weeks of all the work we put in,” lamented Struch. “With the little mini training camp we had and the commitment they had towards each other, for each other to get better. We only really saw one bad period in the last few weeks and that was last weekend against Lethbridge. So this was really disappointing to see the effort they put forth tonight.”
The Rebels finish their regular season Sunday at 4 p.m. against the Oil Kings in Edmonton. Struch is looking for a much improved effort as they prepare to face the Medicine Hat Tigers in the opening round of the playoffs.
“Hopefully they find it in their hearts and their heads to just play hockey. They’ve been a bunch of hockey players the last three weeks and hope they come back and are hockey players tomorrow.”
ICE CHIPS – Wutzke allowed all seven goals on 26 shots before being replaced by Rhett Stoesser at 5:33 of the final period … Stoesser stopped all 10 shots he faced … Perry finished with 23 saves … Despite sitting out of the playoffs with a 26-37-3-1 record the Oil Kings do have a solid offensive team with five players over 20 goal and Sawchyn with 19 … Red Deer has three, including Frantisek Formanek, who is injured … Red Deer was one-for-four on the power play in the chippy affair and Edmonton one-for-five … Red Deer was assessed 14 of 26 minor penalties … Red Deer’s three overage players – Kai Uchacz, Carson :Latimer and Elias Carmichael – were honoured as the three stars … Latimer returned after missing 13 games with a broken jaw suffered in practice … Earlier he missed 19 games with a lower body injury … Uchacz picked up his 100th career assist in the game … The Rebels were without defencemen Carmichael and Matteo Fabrizi and forwards Formanek, Zane Saab and Carson Birnie …The playoffs open March 29-30 in Medicine Hat with games three and four April 2 and 3 at the Centrium.