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Rebels laid out by stingy Tigers in streak-breaking loss

Nov 24, 2018 | 10:42 PM

It was not a very good Saturday night on the scoreboard for the Red Deer Rebels.

Winners of five games in a row and eight of their last nine, the Rebels dropped a 7-3 result on home ice to the Medicine Hat Tigers.

“Obviously when you give up seven goals, you’re not going to win, but I thought we did some really good things,” said Head Coach Brent Sutter post-game. “We controlled things in the offensive zone, but there were just some blatant mistakes we made managing pucks against a team with skilled forwards, and they’re going to burn you.”

Red Deer drew first blood just 1:59 in, Josh Tarzwell scoring his 4th of the season. Arshdeep Bains And Dawson Barteaux got the assists, which is noteworthy because the same trio would extend the Rebels lead a few minutes later.

At 4:17, it was Bains getting his 3rd past Mads Sogaard to make it 2-0.

Following a timeout taken by Medicine Hat, the Tigers would score just moments later, Bryan Lockner scoring his 6th to make it 2-1.

It was also at this point Red Deer expended their timeout.

However, the momentum continued to swing the Tigers’ way, as Josh Williams managed to get another puck by Ethan Anders late in the period and it was 2-2 after 20 minutes.

In the 2nd period, Chris Douglas regained the lead for Red Deer with his 6th at 6:01, unassisted. Douglas took possession of the puck at centre after a nice play by Oleg Zaytsev who’d just left the box. Douglas went in on the breakaway and roofed it past Sogaard and it was 3-2.

A little more than eight minutes later, the Tigers’ Tyler Preziuso would score his 10th to equalize once again.

Just 3:24 after that, Bryan Lockner scored his second of the night and 7th of the season to give the Tigers their first lead.

Then, 1:08 later, while on the man advantage, Tigers captain James Hamblin got his 10th, and Med Hat led 5-3 after two periods of play.

To start the third, the Rebels made a goalie change, Byron Fancy coming in for Ethan Anders in a bid to shake things up and spark a comeback.

However, it wasn’t meant to be.

The Tigers scored twice more in the final frame, Tyler Preziuso getting his second of the night, and Trevor Longo grabbing his 2nd of the season.

“It’s not like we didn’t have scoring chances, but you look at three or four of those goals, and you just can’t do that at this level,” Sutter added. “I took the timeout because I just thought Andy (Anders) needed to refocus, but he just wasn’t sharp the rest of the night. That stuff happens.”

The Rebels, now 16-6-1-0, remain atop the Central Division with 33 points. Second place Edmonton lost in regulation on Saturday and remain a point back of Red Deer.

Next action for the Red Deer Rebels is this Tuesday at home against the best team in the league, the Prince Albert Raiders. The Raiders, now 23-1-0-0 after a win Saturday night, suffered their only defeat this season to Red Deer.

Tuesday’s game starts at 7 p.m. The broadcast can be heard LIVE on 106.7 The Drive starting at 6:30.