Rebels trending upward as midway point nears
Forward Ho!
Like a wagon train from the old west, the Red Deer Rebels rolled into the Christmas break on a four-game winning streak, with victories in seven of their last 10 WHL contests prior to the holidays and tied for fourth in the Eastern Conference with a 17-12-0-3 record.
Impressive, considering they were sitting outside of a playoff spot not that many weeks ago with a sub .500 slate.
The Rebels’ primary strengths to date this season have been their defence, as anticipated, and goaltending, which has been even better than expected considering veteran stopper Kyle Kelsey was dealt to the Tri-City Americans in late October.
Returning netminder Rhett Stoesser, a Central Division First Team All-Star last season as a rookie, has clearly lived up to expectations with a goals-against average of 2.62 and a .911 save percentage. And 17-year-old Chase Wutzke has come on strong in his recent outings and owns numbers of 2.64 and .910 with a 7-2 win-loss record.
The back end, meanwhile, has been stellar despite missing top pairing blueliner Hunter Mayo for a stretch due to injury. Mats Lindgren, in particular, has been extra special, his skating and puck moving skills factoring into his 21 points.
Lindgren is second in team scoring. That he’s not a point-per-game player makes it clear that the Rebels are not an offensive juggernaut.
Scoring has not come easy for the Red Deer crew. Captain Kai Uchacz is the club’s primary points producer with 36, including 20 goals, and the gap between him and the forwards next in line — Carson Latimer (10-9-19) and Ollie Josephson (3-16-19) — is sizeable.
To be fair, 20-year-old Latimer is currently sidelined with a long term injury and has missed nine games, and Josephson is just 17 and getting better game by game. In addition, top six forward and signed Nashville Predators forward Kalan Lind, freshly back from injury, has missed half the season. As well, the Rebels can take solace in the fact that rookie forwards Matthew Gard, Evan Smith and Zane Saab are on an upward trajectory and fellow freshman Jeramiah Roberts, just back from a lengthy spell on the injury list, has shown plenty of promise.
Meanwhile, Talon Brigley is enjoying a breakthrough season and fellow veterans Jhett Larson, Frantisek Formanek, Carson Birnie and Dwayne Jean Jr. bring speed, an impressive work ethic and secondary scoring. In addition, import forward Samuel Drancak has fit in well and with six goals and 13 points he’s a good bet to produce more in the second half of the season.
Red Deer’s power play has struggled due to the lack of scoring punch, sitting 16th overall with a success rate of 19.1 per cent. Conversely, the team’s penalty kill is fourth overall at 83.6 per cent.
If the man advantage units can produce more over the coming three months, the Rebels, if healthy, should be a playoff team and could inflict some damage in the post season.
In summation, the Rebels, who return to action Dec. 27 against the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers, won just two of 10 games during an October-November stretch and — with credit due to the coaching staff — have since rebounded nicely to sit comfortably above the .500 mark.
Onward and upward.
