NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, CFL stats



 Red Deer Rebels

Rebels Explode for Seven Goals in Rout of Warriors

February 27, 2019 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Red Deer Rebels News Release


MOOSE JAW - After a lengthy stretch of mostly shooting blanks, the Red Deer Rebels had their guns blazing Tuesday night at Mosaic Place.

The Rebels, who in recent weeks have struggled to score on pretty much a regular basis, notched three goals in a two-minute span of the first period en route to a 7-3 thumping of the Moose Jaw Warriors.

"We were better. We scored goals tonight because we put pucks to the net and got to the net," said Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter, whose squad pulled into a tie with the Brandon Wheat Kings for the final playoff berth in the WHL's Eastern Conference.

The Rebels, who are also just two points back of Medicine Hat and three behind Calgary, opened their four-game East Division trip with plenty of jump in their stride and grabbed a lead they never relinquished when Reese Johnson fired home a third rebound 10:28 into the contest.

From there, Brandon Hagel made it 2-0 with an impressive waist-high redirection of a point shot by Alex Alexeyev 82 seconds later, and Chris Douglas converted a behind-the-net feed from Arshdeep Bains at 12:28.

"Moose Jaw is a good team and we were able to get a jump on them early," said Sutter. "We had a really good start to the game. We created some chances and some went in the net for us."

Jett Woo cut into the Red Deer lead with a power-play tally early in the second period. The Warriors defenceman was facing basically an open net with Rebels goaltender Ethan Anders down and out following a wild goalmouth scramble.

That was as close as the hosts would get, however, as Hagel cut across the blueline a short time later and shovelled the puck ahead to Josh Tarzwell, who notched his eighth of the season with a nifty move on Warriors goalie Adam Evanoff.

Over the next four minutes and change Douglas connected on a nearly identical play as his earlier goal, with Bains again supplying the set-up, and Alexeyev gave the Rebels a five-goal lead when his offering from the high slot was stopped by Evanoff but glanced off a teammate and into the back of the net.

"We got some different guys going tonight," said Sutter of the Rebels' reasonably balanced attack. "We changed some things up, some lines. We slotted some guys into different holes, maybe just to get them going."

The Warriors got a late second-period, short-handed goal from Luke Ormsby off a two-on-one pass from Justin Almeida, but if offered little in the way of momentum for the home side.

Warriors head coach Tim Hunter pulled Evanoff with over nine minutes remaining in the contest and the hosts promptly applied some major pressure. But Hagel fired the puck nearly the full length of the ice and into an empty net for his second goal and fifth point of the night.

Moose Jaw got a garbage-time goal from Carson Denomie to round out of the scoring.

"With the battle we're in these games are all so big," said Sutter. "We have to have everyone stepping up. We can't just think it's another game.

"These games are like playoffs for us. They're big and we need everyone playing at the level they're capable of playing at.

"It's been a struggle to get that, it's been pretty inconsistent. But tonight we were certainly strong in a lot of areas."

Notable: The Rebels continue their trip with a Wednesday date with the Regina Pats, then take on the Prince Albert Raiders Friday and the Saskatoon Blades Sunday afternoon . . . Hagel was named first star of the game, while Johnson, who had an assist to go with his 22nd goal of the season, was second star and Ormsby was picked as third star . . . Anders finished with 28 saves, two more than Evanoff . . . Attendance was 3,013 . . . The Rebels were one-for-three on the power play, the Warriors one-for-four . . . Red Deer's next home game is March 8 versus Brandon.


• Discuss this story on the Western Hockey League message board...

Western Hockey League Stories from February 27, 2019


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.

Other Recent Red Deer Rebels Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central