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WHL Red Deer Rebels

Rebels Get Late Goal from King in 2-1 Win over Visiting ICE

February 29, 2020 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Red Deer Rebels News Release


Clearly, the Red Deer Rebels and the Winnipeg Ice have a flair for the dramatic.

The Rebels held on for an entertaining 6-5 WHL win over the visiting Ice on Jan. 31, and exactly four weeks later the two clubs hooked up in yet another tight contest.

While Friday's game at the Centrium wasn't as wide-open as the Jan. 31 affair, the Rebels came up with a late goal to take a 2-1 victory in front of 4,056 fans.

Ben King fired the winner at 17:43 of the third period after Josh Tarzwell worked his way out from behind the net and put the puck on his linemate's stick. King, from the low slot, quickly ripped a high shot past Winnipeg netminder Liam Hughes.

"We had a draw back, then got it low to Bainsy (Arshdeep Bains). He made a nice bump to Tarz, who found me in the slot," said King, the game's third star. "I just tried to get it on net and in went it. It all worked out."

Unlike the earlier meeting of the teams on the Centrium Ice, the goaltenders were the best players on both clubs. In a game that could have easily featured another three or four goals, the netminders came up big, with Red Deer's Ethan Anders earning a first star nod with a 37-save performance and Hughes selected as the second star with 26 stops.

"We stayed with it. Obviously a big goal with two and half minutes left in the game," said Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter. "Both goalies were good. Our goalie played well and their goalie made some saves."

Tarzwell opened the scoring with a short-handed penalty shot 11:44 into the contest. The veteran forward was rewarded when he manouvered his way around former Rebels captain Dawson Barteaux on a one-on-one and was hooked by the Ice defenceman.

Jakin Smallwood cashed a rebound to pull the visitors even just over five minutes later and neither team could find a go-ahead goal until King's late marker.

"I think it was 1-1 for almost two periods of play. That goal, the game winner, felt good, the whole team enjoyed it. It was awesome," said King.

"We had a week off so we wanted to come ready and have a good first period and follow through the rest of the game. I thought we did a pretty good job, but we let off the gas a bit there and battled back and got the win. I thought we played pretty good. We battled and that's all that matters."

Sutter wasn't impressed by his club's start.

"It took us awhile to get our feet going in the first period. We've been on a college schedule with game on weekends," he said.

"The kids get tired of practising that much between games so as a coach I was a bit worried about our start tonight. It was probably what I thought it would be.

"But we got our feet moving and played better in the second. The third period, there wasn't much room. It was tight checking. It's a 1-1 game going into the third and both teams are trying to lock it down. But it was a big goal (by King). We were able to get the right guys on the ice at that time and capitalized on it."

The Rebel's victory was their season-best fourth in succession, while the Ice dropped their fourth in a row. Winnipeg was oh-for-three on a brief Central Division trip that included losses in Edmonton and Calgary.

"They've had a tough road trip so we expected them to come out hard," said King. 'We just tried to battle. They battled back and it was a pretty good game by both teams."

The Rebels host the Edmonton Oil Kings on Saturday.

Notable: Tarzwell's marker, his 29th of the season, extended his goal scoring streak to five games . . . Red Deer was zero-for-two on the power play and Winnipeg was zero-for three . . . The Rebels and Ice split their four-game season series.

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Western Hockey League Stories from February 29, 2020


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