Rebels Relinquish Late Lead to Warriors But Prevail in Shootout
November 11, 2018 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Red Deer Rebels News Release
MOOSE JAW - As fate would have it, the Red Deer Rebels were rewarded for turning in a textbook performance through nearly 18 full minutes of the third period.
The Rebels were cruising along with a 3-1 lead in the late stages of Saturday's WHL contest versus the Moose Jaw Warriors, who spent most of the third period trying to muster any offensive pressure.
Then near-disaster struck for the visitors as the Warriors scored two goals with netminder Brodan Salmond on the bench to send the game to extra time.
The Rebels, though, prevailed 4-3 on Reese Johnson's shootout marker.
"We had a real good third period until late, then we just lost it," said Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter. "We had people in wrong places and we were backing in.
"They had the extra man (attacker) on the ice and scored twice."
Ryan Peckford cut Moose Jaw's deficit to one on a backdoor play at 17:56 of the third and Danill Stepanov potted the equalizer just 30 seconds later, scoring from the edge of the right circle.
Neither team found the back of the net in the five-minute, three-on-three overtime session, before Oleg Zaytsev and Johnson, with the eventual winner, beat Salmond in the shootout. Rebels goalie Ethan Anders , meanwhile, allowed one goal and denied three shooters.
The clubs were tied 1-1 after one period, with Jeff de Wit converting a two-on-one feed from Brandon Hagel at 8:08 and Peckford replying for the hosts with a power-play tally from the low slot just over six minutes later.
While the opening frame was even-up in goals and shots, eight apiece, the Warriors carried the play in the second period. Anders had to stand tall during the 20-minute stretch in which Red Deer was outshot 15-6 but nevertheless got a go-ahead, man-advantage goal from Chris Douglas.
Douglas took possession of the puck in the low slot and beat Salmond to the glove side from in tight.
"In the second period we were fine in our own zone at times but just got away from our game where we don't continue to play the right way," said Sutter.
"We wanted to slow the game down, bring pucks back, but when the puck turns over and goes the other way you spend time chasing, and in the second period we spent too much time chasing.
"And when we did get into the offensive zone it was one and out."
The Rebels were the aggressors in the third and got another power play goal from Douglas, who buried his fourth of the season when he spun and shot from 20 feet out just 2:07 into the period.
"We played the way we wanted in the third," said Sutter. "We talked about it after the second period, about getting back to playing like we can. By putting pressure on them and getting pucks into areas where we could forecheck, we were much better."
Anders finished with 28 saves while Salmond turned aside 38 shots, including 21 in the third period.
"Our goalie was better tonight and as an overall group we were better in areas than we were last night (in a 6-3 loss at Brandon)," said Sutter.
The Rebels close out their three-game road trip with a Sunday afternoon engagement with the Swift Current Broncos.
Notable: de Wit's tally, his 12th of the season, extended his goal-scoring streak to six games . . . Zaytsev was an easy winner over Stepanov in the lone fight of the night, an unusual occurrence considering both are imports . . . Attendance at Mosaic Place was 3,307 . . . Defenceman Jacob Herauf may return to the Red Deer lineup Sunday after suffering an upper-body injury early in Friday's game at Brandon and subsequently being taken to hospital. He's listed as day to day.
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