By Dan Hermanutz

West coast setback

Rebels drop road trip opener 3-1 in Victoria

Feb 12, 2020 | 9:11 AM

The Red Deer Rebels kicked off their five-game B.C. road trip on a losing note Tuesday night with a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the playoff-bound Victoria Royals.

The first period ended with neither team finding the back of the net despite each having a chance on the powerplay.

The Rebels opened the score 14:55 into the second period on another powerplay opportunity. Victoria’s Noah Lamb slashed a Rebels player, earning him a seat in the box. The Rebels played with the puck before Arshdeep Bains gave it to Zak Smith, who floated it on net where Adam Evanoff made the original save, but the puck was just sitting there for Ben King to jam in his fifteenth of the year.

The second period ended with the Rebels leading 1-0 and outshooting the Royals 25-17.

Ethan Anders, the reigning WHL Goaltender of the Week, continued to be a brick wall as he opened the third with multiple key saves for the Rebels. One of them he was caught out of his net leaving Victoria forward Gary Haden with an open net on the powerplay. But Anders, remarkably, was able to reach over and close the gap before Haden was able to pull the trigger to tie the game.

amends not made: lacombe pride

Campaign on to reinstate Lacombe-Ponoka MLA booted from UCP caucus for transphobic comments

8h ago

"overreach"

Red Deer and Red Deer County mayors perplexed over rationale of proposed Bill 20

12h ago

Phase 2 upgrades at Dickson Dam to begin this year

14h ago

The Royals broke the goose egg 10:58 into the third period when Phillip Schultz made a nice move to get by Rebels defenders and make it a one-on-one with Anders. Schultz ripped the puck glove side to even the score in the back half of the third period.

With 4:24 left in the third period, the Royals got Red Deer running around in their own end before they scored the eventual game winning goal as Schultz scored his tenth of the year and second of the game.

Victoria added to their lead, making it 3-1 two minutes later when Kade Oliver was in the right place at the right time. Mitch Prowse’s pass went off the stick Brayden Tracy and right to Oliver who scored his seventeenth of the year.

With the loss, the Rebels fell to 18-28-3-2 and suffered just their second regulation loss of the season when leading through forty minutes. The Royals continued their current hot streak by winning their fourth straight.

Royals goaltender Evanoff stopped 36 of 37 Rebels shot, while Anders made 23 saves for the Rebels.

The Rebels will be in Vancouver Wednesday night to play the 25-20-3-2 Giants. Puck drops at 8 p.m., listen to the game live on 106.7 The Drive.