By Dan Hermanutz

Series sweep

Rustlers cruise into round two of Sr. AA playoffs

Feb 5, 2020 | 12:06 PM

The Red Deer Rustlers won their first round NCHL playoff series with the Devon Barons in dominating fashion.

The Rustlers swept the best-of-five series, outscoring Devon 15-4, including two shutouts.

“I think a big thing for us was we were disciplined. We didn’t take penalties and we penalty killed well. The power play seemed to be fairly effective,” said captain Mike Dempster. “Game two we started a bit slow, and had some help from Sammy on the backend but came back and the other two games we got a lead early and kept the foot down and didn’t really give them a chance to come back.”

The Rustlers were outstanding on special teams versus Devon. Their powerplay clicked at a 26 percent rate and they were perfect on the penalty kill.

“I think it was just team commitment,” Dempster feels. “We don’t have necessarily have four guys that penalty kill, we’ve got most of our team as a part of that, just a team commitment to doing the right things and making the right plays. Back to fundamental penalty kill and fundamental power play and when you work hard, sometimes you get rewarded.”

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The Rustlers are currently waiting to see who their opponent will be in the next round. It will be either the Fort Saskatchewan Chiefs, who also swept their first round series, or the Mornville Kings, who currently hold a 2-1 lead in theirs.

“I think both of them are very similar, highly skilled fast teams. Mornville has five guys in the top of the scoring list, Fort Saskatchewan is more of a team scoring, they seem to get production from all their lines as well,” said the captain. “They’re fast, they both don’t take very many penalties. Two of the elite power play teams in the league, so we will need to stay out of the box. I think we match up well, I know it will be fast hockey.”

The Blackfalds Wranglers were swept by the Fort Saskatchewan Chiefs in the first round, while the Lacombe Generals are currently tied with the Daysland Northstars in the series at one game apiece. Game three in that series is Friday, February 7, at 8:15 in Daysland.