Tigers take advantage of Rebels miscues, lucky bounces in 5-2 win

Tigers 5 Rebels 2
The Red Deer Rebels continue to struggle with the basics.
The Rebels refused to play a structured team game, turned the puck over too often, surrendered a pair of power-play goals and were hard-luck victims Tuesday night at the Centrium. It all added up to a 5-2 Western Hockey League loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers before 3,534 spectators.
“Again, it’s about details and fundamentals,” said Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter, whose sentiments were similar following Saturday’s 4-1 home-ice loss to the Prince George Cougars.
“We took some bad penalties,” Sutter continued. “Eventually we broke and they stayed with their game. I didn’t like our decision-making with the puck at all tonight. Our defence didn’t play a very good game for us as far as just managing the puck and making the right plays with it.”
The Tigers carried the play through the first half of the opening period before the Rebels found their stride and took a 1-0 lead 13:33 into the contest on a man-advantage marker from Brandon Hagel. The Red Deer forward, positioned at the side of the net, cashed a rebound after goaltender Michael Bullion denied Kristian Reichel from close range.
The visitors entered the game with the league’s fourth-best power play — operating at a 31 per cent success rate — and connected with a man advantage early in the second period. Ryan Chyzowski potted his fifth of the season on a tip-in from the edge of the crease.
Lane Zablocki restored Red Deer’s lead just over a minute later when he broke in from the left faceoff circle and flipped the puck over Bullion’s pad, but Ryan Jevne pulled the Tigers even late in the middle frame with a rising one-timer from the high slot.
Before the period concluded, defenceman David Quenneville notched the eventual winner on a double deflection with Rebels rearguard Ethan Sakowich serving an interference infraction.
The Tigers’ good fortune continued in the final frame when Tyler Preziuso took advantage of a lucky bounce and scored on Anders’ blocker side, and Joel Craven’s point shot glanced off a Red Deer stick and past the Red Deer rookie netminder.
Sutter replaced Anders with Lasse Petersen after the Tigers’ final goal, but had nothing but words of encouragement for his first-year stopper when he came to the bench.
“Our goalie played well. He made some incredible saves early in the third,” said Sutter, in reference to outstanding stops on Quenneville and James Hamblin during a Medicine Hat power play.
“He’s just a young guy and I didn’t want to see him go through that,” added the Rebels boss of his decision to lift Anders. “I just felt that our game had dropped off and I wanted to let him rest a bit and get ready for Friday’s game (versus the visiting Spokane Chiefs).
“But we have to be better fundamentally. Our details were just not very good at all.”
Sutter was impressed with the forward unit of Austin Pratt, Chris Douglas and Reese Johnson.
“It was our best line tonight,” he said. “I thought ‘Pratter’ and ‘Dougie’ were outstanding. ‘Dougie’ is coming along good and that’s what we want from these young kids.”
The Rebels coaching staff worked with the players in practice Monday in an effort to cut down on defensive miscues and stick to the basics versus the Tigers.
“But we need it from every guy,” said Sutter. “It doesn’t matter what age you are, these kids are all major junior players who all have to improve their games if they want to move on to the next level.
“We have to continue to work on our game and get better, that’s the bottom line. We have a good team, it’s just that guys are trying to do things that are out of the team element. There’s too much one-on-one hockey.”
Just notes: Anders stopped 22 of 27 shots while Petersen turned aside all six he faced over the final 12 minutes. Bullion made 30 saves and was particularly sharp during a third-period Red Deer power play . . . Following Friday’s home game against Spokane, the Rebels will host the Regina Pats Saturday . . . Russian Prospects announced on Twitter Monday that Rebels defenceman Alex Alexeyev has been named to the Russian team for the WHL portion of the CIBC Canada-Russia series. The games are set for Nov. 6 and 7 in Moose Jaw and Swift Current . . . Rebels prospects Jordan Borysiuk and Ethan Rowland each recorded two points for Team Alberta in the WHL Cup tournament – for the top 15-year-olds in each of the four western provinces — which ended Sunday in Calgary. Borysiuk, a third-round pick of the Rebels in the 2017 WHL bantam draft, notched two goals over five games, while first-round pick Rowland contributed a goal and an assist in four games. He didn’t play in the Sunday’s final, in which Alberta — after posting three preliminary wins and a 7-1 semifinal victory over Manitoba — fell 4-3 in overtime to British Columbia.