WHL Red Deer Rebels

Rebels Roll over Oil Kings 7-2

Published on March 20, 2016 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Red Deer Rebels News Release


Outside of surrendering a pair of third-period goals, the Red Deer Rebels closed out their WHL regular-season schedule with an exclamation point Saturday.

The Rebels, with veteran defenceman Colton Bobyk and rookie forward Austin Pratt each scoring twice, rolled over the Edmonton Oil Kings 7-2 before a season-high 7,028 fans at the Centrium.

The Rebels, second in the Central Division, will face the third-place Calgary Hitmen in a best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarter-final starting Friday in Red Deer.

"i thought we played pretty well tonight," said Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter. "Our start was really good, our first and second periods were really good.

"You get a lead like that, you're just trying to get through the third period without getting any injuries. But overall, the kids came here ready to play. We wanted to finish off the regular season the right way.

"We lost our last game at home and our playoffs start in six days. I thought the kids prepared the right way and we did a lot of good things here tonight."

Red Deer bolted out to an early lead when Bobyk fired his 19th goal of the season 1:47 into the game, his power-play blast from the point eluding Oil Kings netminder Payton Lee. The 19-year-old then notched his 20th at 3:13, catching the other side of the net behind a screened Lee with another slap shot from the blueline.

"It was nice. The first shift we get a goal and the next one I got a nice pass and I guess it was a nice goal," said Bobyk, who admitted hitting the 20-goal mark was a highlight of his season.

"That was a goal I set at the start of the year and I achieved it," he said. 'I'm happy."

Adam Helewka upped the count to 3-0 following a great individual effort by Grayson Pawlenchuk, who was rubbed out along the side boards but kept his feet moving, pursued the puck behind the net and centred the puck to his teammate, who notched his 42nd of the season.

Rookie forward Austin Pratt closed out the first-period scoring at 16:03, beating Lee to the far top corner from the right face-off circle.

The Rebels, despite being outshot 12-7 in the second period, upped the count to 6-0 on goals by Luke Philp and Jeff de Wit (power play). Philp cashed a nifty feed from Michael Spacek and de Wit caught the top of the net from with a volley from the low slot.

Pratt potted his eighth of the season - a power-play marker - 3:02 into the third period.

"That line, overall, with Nik (Ivan Nikolishin) starting there and Bleacks (Conner Bleackley) going down . . . we kind of had guys rotating in and out with Jeff and Pratter," said Sutter. "I thought that line did a really good job tonight. We need them and everyone else to play well."

Oil Kings veteran forward Brett Pollock, a Calgary Flames prospect, got the visitors on the board with a short-handed marker at 7:38 of the final frame and connected again - his 30th of the season, on the power play - at 14:41 to close out the scoring.

"We started well and once we got a comfortable lead we backed off a little," said Bobyk. "But it's nice to go into the playoffs with a win. This was our last home game and we needed to get momentum going into the playoffs."

Rebels starting netminder Trevor Martin stopped all 21 shots he faced before rookie Dawson Weatherill entered at the start of the second period and kicked out 10 of 12 shots.

Lee made 19 saves for the Oil Kings. Carter Phair came on in the third period and was six-for-six in the save department.

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Western Hockey League Stories from March 20, 2016


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