WHL Red Deer Rebels

Tigers Take Advantage of Sloppy Defensive Play by Rebels

November 25, 2018 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Red Deer Rebels News Release


A sweet start led to a sour ending for the Red Deer Rebels in Saturday's Western Hockey League contest at the Centrium.

The Rebels jumped out to a 2-0 lead before the game was five minutes old and led 3-2 in the second period, but faulty puck management and less than stellar goaltending resulted in a 7-3 loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers.

On a night when everything went sideways on the Rebels, GM/head coach Brent Sutter didn't fault his club's work ethic but wasn't thrilled with the large number of defensive miscues.

"Obviously if you give up seven goals you're not going to win, but I thought we did some really good things," he said. "I thought we controlled things in the offensive zone, but just the blatant mistakes we made managing pucks . . . when you play a team with skilled forwards they're going to burn you on them and they did tonight."

The Rebels opened the scoring before many of the 3,771 fans were settled into their seats whenTigers goalie Mads Sogaard got caught behind his net battling Arshdeep Bains for the puck. Bains prevailed and threw it out front to Josh Tarzwell, who fired into the gaping cage.

The pair hooked up on a second goal just over two minutes later - at 4:17 to be precise - when Bains buried a perfect feed from Tarzwell while alone in the low slot.

Tigers bench boss Shaun Clouston called a timeout at that point and a few shifts later Bryan Lockner knocked in a loose puck just outside the crease when netminder Ethan Anders couldn't control a puck off the stick of Linus Nassen that took a weird bounce at the last second.

"It was a bad goal, the goalie has to make that save for you," said Sutter, who promptly called a timeout of his own.

"I thought Andy needed to refocus, but he just wasn't sharp the rest of the night and that's why I put in Byron (Fancy) in the third . . . let Andy get a rest and get him ready for Tuesday (versus the visiting Prince Albert Raiders).

"It was one of those nights. A goalie isn't going to be razor sharp every night."

The Tigers pulled even late in the opening frame when Red Deer rearguard Ethan Sakowich directed a cross-ice pass to Dawson Barteaux that glanced off his skate and led to a three-on-one that Josh Williams converted.

The Rebels regained the lead six minutes into the second period when Oleg Zaytsev stepped out of the penalty box and broke up a Tigers rush. Chris Douglas then created a turnover outside the visitors' blueline, broke in alone and beat Sogaard high to the glove side.

"When we got the 3-2 lead I thought we were playing real good," said Sutter.

From there, the Rebels had every opportunity to extend their lead when they hemmed their guests inside the blueline for basically the entire two minutes of a power play but couldn't capitalize.

Instead, Tigers' forward Tyler Preziuso notched his first of two goals on the night a minute after the penalty expired, stripping defenceman Carson Sass of the puck down low and beating Anders from close range.

"We controlled it (on the power play), then one player gets caught out and he's tired, we turn the puck over and it ends up in our net," said Sutter.

Lockner, with his second of the evening, gave the Tigers a lead they wouldn't relinquish just over three minutes later on a one-timer from the left circle.

"On their fourth goal we missed our check inside the blueline and never stopped, did a big turn and set it up for a one-timer on the side," said Sutter.

"Just details like that. You can't make those mistakes and think you're going to win. And maybe it's a good wake up call too."

Tigers captain James Hamblin potted a power play marker late in the middle frame and the visitors put it away in the final period, Preziuso taking advantage of yet another uncharacteristic giveaway by Sass and Trevor Longo redirecting a pass from Lockner.

"Look at the goals we gave up. At this level you can't give up those kind of goals," said Sutter. Three or four of their goals, you're like, whoa, you can't do that at this level. It's just mistakes you can't make."

Anders stopped 15 of the 20 shots he faced before being replaced by Fancy at the start of the third period. Fancy made 11 saves on 13 shots, while Sogaard finished with 25 saves.

"It was probably an off night for our goalie, he never played as well as we needed," said Sutter. "But it's going to happen every now and again through a season.

"But it's not like I'm leaving here really disappointed with our group. At the end of the night you kind of get what you deserve and yet I thought we did some really good things here tonight. It's not like we didn't compete, it's not like we didn't play hard and have scoring chances."

Notable: Selected as the game's three stars were (1) Lockner, (2) Preziuso and (3) Tarzwell . . . The loss was just Red Deer's second of the season at the Centrium, their first since a setback at the hands of the Edmonton Oil Kings way back on Sept. 22 . . . On a positive note, the Rebels were able to hang on to their one-point lead atop the Central Division when Edmonton fell 3-2 at Swift Current.

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Western Hockey League Stories from November 25, 2018


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