(Photo: Red Deer Rebels/Rob Wallator)

By Troy Gillard

three-goal lead evaporates

Rebels give up six straight in 7-4 loss to Lethbridge

Mar 12, 2021 | 10:56 PM

The Lethbridge Hurricanes scores six unanswered goals to erase a 4-1 first period deficit and defeat the Red Deer Rebels 7-4 in Western Hockey League action Friday night at the Westerner Park Centrium.

The Rebels fell to 1-3-1 on the season with the loss while the Hurricanes earned their first win to improve to 1-2-0.

“I thought we lacked our battle and compete. I thought we lost a lot of battles tonight defensively very erratic,” lamented Rebels GM/Head Coach Brent Sutter.

“You get into these games and it’s a read pretty quickly on who picked things up through the week and who didn’t. We’ve worked hard in practice and did a lot of things with details and defensive coverage. Just all the elements in the game you have to have to be successful and we have a hard time implementing in the game.”

Prevention, Access, Recovery, and Coordination

Safe Harbour officially hands over shelter keys, establishes accessible navigation hub

10h ago

lacombe and sylvan lake

December 2025 (un)employment data released for Alberta sub-regions

11h ago

21 years with WCPS

Darcy Blum appointed principal of Lacombe Outreach School

12h ago

The floodgates opened early in this game as the teams combined for eight goals on 20 shots in the opening period.

It started at the 2:37 mark when Alex Cotton’s wrist shot from the point made its way through a maze of players and past Rebels goalie Ethan Anders for a power play goal and a 1-0 Lethbridge lead.

The Rebels replied in a big way with four straight that started with Ethan Rowland floating a backhander past Hurricanes goalie Bryan Thomson for his second goal of the season at 3:37.

Arshdeep Bains made it 2-1 Red Deer just over a minute later with his second goal in as many games.

A mere 1:13 after that Carter Anderson scored his first WHL goal in his second career game to make it a 3-1 game. That spelled the end of the night for Thomson as he was replaced by Carl Tetachuk between the pipes for the Hurricanes.

Zak Smith made it 4-1 Red Deer 8:12 into the first period when he reached out with one hand on his stick and tipped a long shot from Jace Isley through the five hole of Tetachuk.

The Hurricanes stormed back with three straight goals of their own to tie the game 4-4 before the end of the period. Zack Stringer scored on a power play at 14:16, Olds native Jett Jones followed up at 15:15 and then Liam Kindree beat Anders with just 7.4 seconds left in the period.

“I didn’t think we played very well even when we were up 4-1. I thought we were just okay,” Sutter said. “We were turning the puck over and we just got some lucky breaks where the goalie just missed pucks. I wasn’t really impressed with our team game at all.”

Lethbridge regained the lead, for good as it turned out, just 34 seconds into period two when Chase Wheatcroft backhanded a rebound past Anders for his first goal of the season. Wheatcroft struck again at 15:32 for Lethbridge’s third power play tally of the game and a 6-4 lead through 40 minutes.

The Rebels pushed back a bit in the third period but were unable to put one past Tetachuck, who was superb in relief for the Hurricanes. It would be Jones netting his second goal of the game with 2:06 left to play to put the wraps on a big win for Lethbridge.

Red Deer outshot Lethbridge 30-29 on the night and was 0-for-1 on the power play while Lethbridge was 3-for-6.

Wheatcroft was the game’s first star. Anderson took second star for the Rebels while Tetachuck nabbed third star honours for Lethbridge.

Rebels captain Jayden Grubbe suffered a lower body injury in the first period. He returned briefly in the second period before leaving the game for good. Sutter says Grubbe will be having an MRI to determine the extent of the injury.

“We’ll just have to see. At this point, it’s hard to say what it might be or could be.”

The Rebels continue their three-game weekend series Saturday night in Lethbridge. Game time from the Enmax Centre is 6 p.m. with the radio broadcast on 106.7 REWIND Radio starting at 5:50 p.m.