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WHL Red Deer Rebels

Rebels Display Plenty of Grit But Fall 4-0 to Visiting Oil Kings

March 1, 2020 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Red Deer Rebels News Release


The Red Deer Rebels fought to the bitter end Saturday night at the Centrium, but lost the battle.

In a fast-paced, physical contest, the Rebels fell 4-0 to the WHL's top team, the Edmonton Oil Kings, before 4,151 fans.

"We kept it tight and our goaltender had moments when he played really well," said Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter.

"We never generated a whole lot of offence, never got much going. And when we did their goalie seemed to make the save . . . easy save, whatever."

Oil Kings netminder Beck Warm stopped all 26 shots he faced while Ethan Anders turned in a second straight solid performance for the home side with 31 saves.

The visitors carried the play for most of the opening period, outshooting their hosts 14-6 and scoring a pair of unanswered goals.

With Edmonton on the power play, Riley Sawchuk, from the left circle, one-timed a feed from Matthew Robertson into the back of the Red Deer net 8:02 into the game, and Carter Souch scored on a penalty shot late in the period.

"For the first 30 minutes of the game we needed to push harder, have a better pace to our game, and we never," said Sutter.

"But we stayed in it right to the end. We kept battling and I thought that over the last 30 minutes especially we played pretty well."

But the Rebels couldn't find a goal and also never got a single bounce. They created a handful of opportunities and probably deserved a goal or two, but came up empty.

The score remained at 2-0 through the second period and most of the third before the Oil Kings struck for a pair of late markers.

Dylan Guenther went hard to the net and chipped a feed from Jake Neighbours past Anders with 4:40 remaining in the contest and David Kope notched an empty-netter three minutes later.

Sutter wasn't around to take in the final seven minutes and change after being ejected for arguing a double minor assessed to Cam Hausinger.

The Rebels veteran flattened Keagan Slaney with a classic open ice hit and Tyler Horstmann entered the fray with his stick, seemingly looking for a scrap.

Hausinger started tossing and when the Oil Kings rookie forward realized he was in well over his head, he didn't drop his gloves. Hausinger somehow picked up four minutes for roughing while Horstmann got a single minor for unsportsmanlike conduct and the visitors went to the power play.

"I don't understand that at all. I don't get that," said Sutter. "Cam makes a great hit in the neutral zone, a guy comes over and cross checks him twice and lunges at him like he wants to fight him.

"Cam drops his gloves and yet they put us short-handed on that. I think it's a joke personally. The ref makes the call but I don't understand that call at all.

"A guy comes over to want to fight and cross checks somebody then doesn't drop his gloves, and our guy is basically defending himself and he gets the extra minor. That to me is not right."

Both teams delivered big hits and the game featured several scrums and two actual fights, both in the final minutes.

Notable: The Oil Kings were one-for-two on the power play while the Rebels were zero-for-five. Red Deer is one-for-32 versus the Oil Kings and their WHL-best penalty kill this season . . . Selected as the three stars were (1) Warm, (2) Rebels captain Ethan Sakowich and (3) Souch . . . The Rebels are off until next weekend when the host the Spokane Chiefs and Swift Current Broncos Friday and Saturday.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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