Rebels streak runs to lucky 13 games

Over the past 44 years, no Western Hockey League team had ever started a season with 13 consecutive wins.

Until Sunday.

The Red Deer Rebels dispatched the Edmonton Oil Kings 7-2 at Rogers Place, earning their 13th win in as many tries, setting a new, modern WHL mark in the process.

Red Deer scored five times in Sunday’s second period to break the game open.

The Rebels streak unseats the 1988-89 Swift Current Broncos 12-game run as the longest season-opening winning streak since the WHL adopted its current name in 1978.

Red Deer has outscored its opponents 59-22 over the span of the streak, a feat made all the more impressive given that neither of the Club’s two goaltenders, Kyle Kelsey and Rhett Stoesser, had played a minute of WHL regular season action prior to the start of the 2022-23 campaign.

Kelsey finished the month of October with an 8-0-0-0 record and .936 save percentage, while Stoesser collected a pair of shutouts from his first four appearances in the WHL.

A half-dozen Rebels are averaging a point-per-game or better to start the season including Anaheim Ducks prospect Ben King.

The reigning WHL goal-scoring leader put up five goals and 10 points in five games before suffering a lower body injury earlier this month.

Veterans Kai Uchacz (11 goals) and Jhett Larson (eight goals) are both just three tallies away from matching career highs, too.

Only one of Red Deer’s victories has required extra time, that being a 3-2 overtime triumph versus the Calgary Hitmen October 8.

The all-time League record for consecutive wins to begin a season is 22, set by the WCHL’s Estevan Bruins in 1967.

Red Deer’s next eight contests are all away from home, beginning Friday, November 4 at Swift Current.