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WHL Red Deer Rebels

Rebels Push Oil Kings to the Limit, But Come up Short

December 28, 2019 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Red Deer Rebels News Release


Clearly, the Red Deer Rebels have come a long way since their early season Western Hockey League struggles.

The Rebels have been a much improved team over their last 10 to 12 games and that much was evident Friday night at the Centrium in a 2-1 loss to the Edmonton Oil Kings, one of the league's superior clubs.

"It was a good game coming right back from that 12-game (Christmas) break," said Rebels captain Dawson Barteaux. "They call it the turkey game for a reason.

"I think we reacted pretty well after the break and played good enough to win, it's just that the bounces didn't go our way tonight."

The visitors got a goal from David Kope 7:34 into the contest on an in-close deflection of a point shot by Matthew Robertson, then got the eventual winner off the stick of Jalen Luypen just past the midway point of the second period.

The puck slipped through the five-hole of Rebels netminder Byron Fancy after glancing off a Red Deer skate.

"I thought it was a pretty good game for the first game after Christmas, after having 12 days off," said Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter.

"Their second goal was fortunate for them and we got one that was probably fortunate too."

The Rebels boss was referring to Arshdeep Bains' hard-work marker. The third-year forward went hard to the net and the puck glanced off his skate and past Oil Kings netminder Sebastian Cossa at 7:12 of the third period.

The goal seemed to give the Rebels an extra dose of energy and they carried the play through to the final buzzer without finding the equalizer.

"You could see the hard work he put in to get that goal," said Barteaux. "It gave us a jump and we were all over them after that. We caught a hot goalie and just couldn't another one in."

Cossa finished with 30 saves and was selected as the game's first star. Red Deer netminder Byron Fancy also stood out and earned second-star status with a 33-save performance.

"It was a tight game, the guys stayed in the fight and I liked that," said Sutter, whose club dominated during a second-period power play without finding the back of the net. "I liked the fact that our young guys played hard and showed some urgency in the third period, which was important.

"Our goaltender was solid but we didn't score enough goals and had five guys who were minus two. When you're not scoring goals and have five guys at minus two, you're not going to win the game."

Regardless, the fact that the Rebels - one of the league's younger teams - came within a single shot of earning at least a single point against a top three to four team in the WHL didn't escape Sutter's attention.

"You look at where we were earlier in the season to where we are now, you can see the growth of individuals and the growth of our team," he said.

"We have a lot of young guys who are taking steps forward and taking on more prominent roles. But we have to continue to push them to do so and the older guys have to understand they have to get better too.

"It good for our kids to play good teams, that's what you want to measure yourself every day and measure from where we were early in the year. I'd say we're making strides."

The teams meet again Saturday night in the provincial capital.

"We're looking forward to getting back at them tomorrow night in Edmonton," said Barteaux.

Notable: Bains was named the game's third star . . . Neither team connected on the power play, with the Oil Kings going zero-for-two and the Rebels coming up empty on three man-advantage situations . . . The official attendance was 4,396 . . . The Rebels host the Western Conference leading Everett Silvertips Monday night.

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Western Hockey League Stories from December 28, 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.

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