T-Birds Fall Short in Red Deer
RED DEER, Alta. – Brock England had a goal and an assist in his hometown, but the Seattle Thunderbirds fell, 5-3, to the Red Deer Rebels Saturday at the Marchant Crane Centrium. Seattle’s five game sojourn through Alberta continues Sunday with a stop in Edmonton to face the Oil Kings.
“Overall, I thought we might have outplayed them,” said head coach Matt O’Dette. “But the margin for error is thin and we make a mistake and it ends up in the back of our net.”
Seattle (14-16-2-2) got off to a fast start with England scoring his 14th of the season just 26-seconds into the game when he put back a rebound off a Tai Riley shot.
Red Deer would tie the game at 5:44, then take their first lead at 12:12 and leaving the ice after one period up 2-1. Seattle evened the score when Brendan Rudolph slid home a rebound off an England shot at 4:07 of period two for his ninth of the season. The Rebels broke the tie with a power play goal at 13:01.
“The special teams game is always a factor,” explained O’Dette. “You never know which play is going to be the difference. We took the too many men bench minor, an avoidable play, and that’s the difference.”
Trailing by a goal entering the final period, the T-Birds got an early tying goal at 1:22 from Marcus Laraque, another goal scored off a rebound in front of the Red Deer net. The goal was the second of the season for Laraque, assisted by Sawyer Mayers.
The Rebels regained the lead for good with a goal at the 6:00 mark, then finished off the scoring into the empty net at 18:29. Seattle outshot the Rebels 36-24. It was the second straight game the T-Birds had a decided edge in shots but came up short on the scoreboard.
T-BIRD EXTRAS
Seattle acquired Mathew Gard from the Rebels in a trade Friday. Gard is a prospect of the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, who selected him in the second round of the NHL Draft this past summer. Gard has yet to make his T-Birds debut as he deals with an upper body injury.
Seamus Dillon, the Thunderbirds fifth round pick in the 2024 WHL Prospects Draft made his regular season WHL debut in the game.
Seattle lost the special teams battle again going 0/3 on the power play while surrendering the games only power play goal. The T-Birds are 0/9 with the man advantage the last two games while giving up three power play goals against.
Boxscore: Seattle Thunderbirds at Red Deer Rebels – Saturday, January 3, 2026
