Rebels Drop Fifth Straight, 5-2 to Visiting Oil Kings
February 24, 2019 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Red Deer Rebels News Release
It was a good news, bad news night for the Red Deer Rebels.
The good news: The Brandon Wheat Kings were sheared 7-1 by the host Prince Albert Raiders.
The bad: The Rebels couldn't take advantage of Brandon's loss, falling 5-2 to the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings Saturday in front of 4,827 fans at the Centrium.
As a result, Red Deer remains two points back of Brandon for the final playoff berth in the Western Hockey League's Eastern Conference.
"Edmonton played well. We didn't play to their pace," said Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter, whose club suffered a fifth straight loss.
The Rebels boss admitted he sensed trouble with his team playing its first home game in two weeks despite giving the Oil Kings all they could handle in a 2-1 setback 24 hours earlier in Red Deer's sixth straight road contest.
"Tonight's game had me worried going into it in the sense that it's that first game back after a long road trip," he said. "It's always one that seems to bite you in the rear end.
"I didn't want it to be because of our situation, but I don't think we handled it very well as a team. A lot of guys got frustrated through the game tonight and that tells you where their mindsets were."
The Oil Kings bolted out to a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes and were firmly in control of the contest from that point on.
Vince Loschiavo opened the scoring by beating Rebels netminder Ethan Anders with a high shot from down low in the left circle 12:09 into the contest, and Parker Gavlas followed with his first of the season just under four minutes later, his point shot beating a screened Anders over his blocker.
Trey Fix-Wolanksy made it 3-0 with a power play tally midway through the second period, cashing in with a high wrister from the right circle.
Following a middle frame in which Edmonton held a 16-7 shots advantage, Andrei Pavlenko extended the visitors' lead by beating Anders through the five-hole from 10 feet out early in the third.
With the home team short-handed, Rebels defenceman Ethan Sakowich cut the deficit to three with a rising shot from the high slot at 5:13 of the final frame, but Vladimir Alistrov restored Edmonton's four-goal bulge just under three minutes later, cashing a centering pass from Pavlenko.
Rebels rookie forward Oleg Zaytsev closed out the scoring with yet another short-handed marker with two seconds remaining, beating Oil Kings goaltender Dylan Myskiw upstairs from the right circle.
The Rebels brief visit home will end when the club heads east Monday for a tough four-game East Division road trip that starts Tuesday in Moose Jaw. Red Deer will also play Wednesday in Regina, Friday in Prince Albert and Sunday at Saskatoon.
It very well could be a make-it-or-break-it jaunt for the Rebels, who will have to find a way to get back into the win column, and soon, if they hope to qualify for post-season play.
"You have to want to do it. There has to be a will inside you where you want to deal with adversity and change it," said Sutter.
"If you just accept it and move on with it, it's not going to change. We have individuals who have to work on that part of it to change their mindsets and change their attitudes towards what's going on and how it has to change for the better.
"When you get into a situation like this you can either hit it head on, pick away at it, make it better and move forward, or allow things to continue to happen. Then you become part of the problem about not resolving it.
"I think we have a few players like that, when things don't go exactly right for the first few shifts or a period, they don't want to throw themselves into the fight like you need to and it becomes a negative at the end of the night. And tonight we had a lot of negatives.
"Some of these kids are going through it for the first time and they're having a hard time fighting through it, and some guys have gone through it before and that's why they're struggling, because they probably didn't handle it well before."
Notable: Myskiw made 21 saves for the Oil Kings and was selected as the game' second star, just behind teammate Alistrov and just ahead of Sakowich . . . Anders surrendered five goals on 33 shots before being replaced by Byron Fancy midway through the final frame. Fancy turned aside the only three shots he faced.
Western Hockey League Stories from February 24, 2019
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