(Photo: Rob Wallator)

By Troy Gillard

Good start to the game, but...

Rebels fade late in shootout loss to Tigers

Nov 16, 2019 | 10:01 AM

“Two out of three ain’t bad” is fine if you’re at a Meatloaf concert, but it’s not a great recipe for winning hockey games.

The Red Deer Rebels learned this the hard way Friday night as they let a lead slip away in the third period on their way to a 4-3 shootout loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers at the Westerner Park Centrium.

“For 39 and a half minutes we were a good team,” acknowledged Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter.

The game’s 40^th minute proved to be the turning point in the game as that’s when the Rebels, skating with a 3-1 lead, gave up a goal tip-in goal from Tigers forward Corson Hopwo with 31 seconds left in the second period.

“The puck should have never been in our end,” Sutter lamented. “We picked up the puck 10 feet inside our blue line, we skated back behind our net and turned the puck over. They get a shot on net and then we lose a faceoff and it’s in our net.”

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Until that point the Rebels had looked as good as they had all season long on home ice in outshooting Medicine Hat 28-13 through two periods.

After the first period ended goalless the Rebels broke out for three in the second period. Ben King scored his first as a Rebel since coming via trade last week from Swift Current. Jaxsen Wiebe and Josh Tarzwell also put pucks past Tigers goalie Garin Bjorklund.

Brett Kemp had opened the scoring in the game for Medicine Hat on an early second period power play.

After Hopwo got the Tigers within one late in the period, Jonathan Brinkman tied the game at 13:28 of the third.

The three-on-three overtime period solved nothing, so it was off to a shootout where Brinkman scored the game winner in the fourth round of the skills contest.

Ethan Anders turned in a solid start in net for the Rebels with 27 saves. Bjorklund turned aside 29 shots for the Tigers.

Medicine Hat was 1-for-4 on the powerplay while the Rebels were held to 0-for-4.

The Rebels are right back in action Saturday night as they take on the Brandon Wheat Kings at the Westerner Park Centrium at 7 p.m. The game can also be heard on 106.7 THE DRIVE.