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WHL Red Deer Rebels

Rebels Falter in Third Period, Fall 3-1 to Host Wheat Kings

February 9, 2022 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Red Deer Rebels News Release


BRANDON - The Red Deer Rebels were in good shape Tuesday with a one-goal lead and a grasp on momentum thanks to a strong start to the third period.

Then it all unravelled for the visitors, who gave up a trio of late goals and suffered a 3-1 WHL loss to the Brandon Wheat Kings before 1,993 fans at Westoba Place.

"It's disappointing to come away with nothing there, for sure," said Rebels head coach Steve Konowalchuk. "We were in position with the lead and playing pretty well to be honest for the first part of that period.

"Then just a couple or three breakdowns that were pretty big that their guys capitalized on."

The Rebels kept close tabs on Wheat Kings star Ridly Greig and had the Canadian national junior team forward under wraps until he broke down the left wing, cut to the middle and tucked the puck through the pads of netminder Chase Coward at 10:55 of the final frame.

Red Deer native Nate Danielson, Greig's linemate, then potted the eventual winner just under four minutes later, scoring from the left circle after Rebels defenders Kyle Masters and Jackson van de Leest backed off and gave him plenty of time to pick his spot.

Still, the Rebels had an opportunity to pot the equalizer when Brandon forward Landon Roberts was assessed a cross-checking penalty with nearly four minutes remaining.

But instead, Greig scored on a short-handed breakaway to nail down the win for the home side.

"There was some good work there in the third and we would have liked to come away with a point or two, but we didn't," said Konowalchuk. "Certainly for the first 10 minutes of the period we were playing a pretty good game."

Following a scoreless opening period, the Rebels notched the only goal of the middle frame when Jhett Larson took a two-on-one pass from Ben King and beat goaltender Ethan Kruger high to the blocker side just four minutes shy of the intermission.

But the visitors couldn't bring it home and fell to 29-14-2-1 on the season, remaining in second place in the Central Division and third in the Eastern Conference.

On a night they dearly needed a power play goal, the Rebels went zero-for-four with a man advantage.

"There were times we still weren't as sharp as we needed to be," said Konowalchuk. "It wasn't a lack of effort but we didn't execute as well as we could have at times."

Red Deer was perfect on the penalty kill however, going six-for-six, including erasing three infractions in the first seven minutes of the game.

"The penalty kill was good for sure. We didn't give them many chances and Cowey (Coward) was good for us when they had opportunities," said the Rebels bench boss.

The Rebels return to action Friday when they host the Edmonton Oil Kings at 7 p.m. at the Peavey Mart Centrium.

Notable: Arshdeep Bains drew an assist on Red Deer's lone goal, giving him 65 points - including a WHL-best 42 helpers - and a two-point cushion over King and Kyle Crnkovic of the Saskatoon Blades for the league scoring lead. King's goal was his 34th of the season. He's the league's top sniper, holding a three-goal lead over Jackson Berezowski of the Everett Silvertips . . . Coward made 25 saves for the Rebels, two fewer than Kruger, who was named the third star. Selected as the game's first two stars were Greig and Riley Ginnell, who had two assists.

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