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Rebels fall 3-1 to Kootenay in home ice return

Nov 18, 2017 | 8:42 PM

A long awaited return home couldn’t help the Red Deer Rebels get back on the winning track.

The Rebels came up short in a 3-1 loss to the Kootenay Ice at the Enmax Centrium. It was their second loss to the Ice in as many nights after falling 4-3 in Cranbrook on Friday.

To say this game started slowly would still be generous. There were 10 face-offs in the opening three minutes in a prime example of slow, grinding play.  The Rebels, looking rather fatigued in their return home, took nearly 14 minutes to register their first shot on goal. But they managed to get the through the first period tied 0-0.

The Rebels started the second period much better, so much so that they took a 1-0 lead at the 1:33 mark courtesy of Mason McCarty’s team leading 12th goal of the season. Reese Johnson earned the lone assist on the goal.

Kootenay took a 2-1 lead midway through the period on goals 55 seconds apart from Alec Baer and Colton Veloso.

Peyton Krebs ripped home a power play one timer at the 17:21 mark to send Kootenay to the second intermission with a 3-1 lead.

Red Deer showed some spark in the opening minutes of the frame, but unlike the previous period was unable to put one past Ice goalie Duncan McGovern. Kootenay held on from there for the two goal victory.

Kootenay outshot Red Deer 33-25 on the night and were 1/5 on the power play while the Rebels went 0/2, extending their run of futility on the power play to 1/32.

Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter says it’s up to his players to get themselves out of the funk that’s seen them lose nine of their last ten games.

“We can’t sit around and feel sorry for ourselves. It’s been something that’s been building for quite some time,” he said after Saturday’s game. “I talked to the kids three weeks ago about it, that they had to change their mindsets and the way they think or else it was going to nail them in the butt. Well, it’s nailing them in the butt.”

The process toward doing so isn’t complicated, Sutter noted.

“Get back to being a hard-working team. Be more discipline. Everyone talks about so many things, but it begins with work ethic. You don’t have discipline in your game, you don’t have compete or have structure when you’re not a working team. At times our team doesn’t work hard enough. We get out battled and out competed.”

The Rebels now get some much needed time to rest and hit the reset button before taking on the Portland Winterhawks at the Enmax Centrium on Friday, Nov. 24 (7 p.m. on 106.7 The Drive).