WHL Red Deer Rebels

Rebels Burned on Odd-Man Rushes, Fall 5-1 to Chiefs

Published on March 7, 2020 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Red Deer Rebels News Release


The Red Deer Rebels' battle level was just fine and for the most part they matched the Spokane Chiefs stride for stride Friday night at the Centrium.

Unfortunately for the home side, there wasn't a lot of intelligence in their game.

"We played a good team and we weren't very smart. That's the reality," said Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter, following a 5-1 WHL loss to the red-hot Chiefs in front of 4,009 spectators.

"Too many odd-man rushes against us, two-on-ones, three-on-ones, three-on twos, four-on threes. And then we took some bad penalties."

The Rebels were actually the better team in the first period, outshooting their guests 12-10.

But the visitors notched the lone goal of the opening 20 minutes when Michael King beat netminder Byron Fancy with a point shot.

"Our work ethic was fine, I thought we had a real good start to the game. They got a bad goal on us and we're down 1-0," said Sutter. "Then we started giving up odd-man rushes and the next thing you know it's 3-0."

League-leading scorer Adam Beckman went bar down on Fancy after taking a feed from Eli Zummack on a three-on-one at 13:49 of the second frame.

Then, three minutes later, reigning WHL and CHL defenceman of the year Ty Smith took a drop pass from Beckman and notched his 18th of the season with a blast from the high slot. Again, the goal came on an odd-man rush.

Cam Hausinger's 11th of the season, on the power play, got Red Deer back in the game late in the period. Jayden Grubbe relayed the puck to his teammate at the side of the net and Hausinger made a nifty play to gain position on a Chiefs defender and tucked the puck into the far corner.

But that was it for the Rebels as their opponents pulled away in the final period, taking advantage of more defensive miscues.

"After the second period we talked about playing not such high risk hockey and at the very start of the third period we got caught up the ice again on an odd-man rush," said Sutter.

Beckman connected a mere 53 seconds into the period on a somewhat fortunate play. Leif Mattson carried the puck over the Red Deer blueline and after it was knocked off his stick, it went directly to Beckman, who had an open net after Fancy had committed to Mattson.

"The forward doesn't pick up the right guy and it's 4-1 and you're battling from behind again," said Sutter. "It's just not smart.

"From a coach's standpoint it's troublesome because you work on all this stuff in practice all year and we're in March now and we're still doing the same things we were doing in September. That's just frustrating."

Beckman, selected as the game's first star, completed his hat trick with a power-play tally with 1:12 remaining.

All in all, the Rebels played a perilous style against a team that came in riding a seven-game winning streak.

"You can't play that way. When you're not an offensive juggernaut team you certainly can't play that way," said Sutter.

"Trying to get it through (to the players) has been a difficult thing all year. It's something they fight because they all want to be offensive-minded players. The reality is we don't have a lot of offensive-minded players so you have to defend the right way."

Notable: Fancy turned aside 31 shots, one fewer than James Porter Jr. - the game's third star - at the other end . . . Red Deer's Chris Douglas was selected as the second star . . . The Chiefs were one-for-four on the power play while the Rebels were one-for-five with a man advantage . . . Red Deer was minus the services of rearguard Christoffer Sedoff, out day-to-day with a lower body injury . . . In what has been basically a foregone conclusion for several weeks, the Rebels were eliminated from playoff contention Friday when the Saskatoon Blades beat the Regina Pats 2-1 in overtime. The Rebels trail the Blades, who occupy the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, by 20 points with eight games remaining . . . The Rebels host the Swift Current Broncos Saturday.

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Western Hockey League Stories from March 7, 2020


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