(Red Deer Rebels/Rob Wallator)

By Troy Gillard

bounce back effort

Rebels solid in 5-1 win over Lethbridge

Mar 14, 2021 | 9:16 PM

After special teams helped carry the Lethbridge Hurricanes to back-to-back wins to start the weekend, the Red Deer Rebels flipped the script Sunday in downing Lethbridge 5-1 in Western Hockey League action at the Westerner Park Centrium.

The Rebels were powered by two power play goals and two shorthanded tallies as they improved to 2-3-2-0 on the season while Lethbridge dropped to 2-3-0-0.

“(It) was probably our most complete game as far as a full game,” said Rebels GM and head coach Brent Sutter.

“(Saturday) we were good and we shot ourselves in the foot by taking some penalties at bad times. Our penalty killing wasn’t great and hadn’t been good the first two games of the series.”

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After neither team scored in the first period, Josh Tarzwell opened the scoring for the Rebels 1:12 into the second period when he put home a rebound for his second goal in as many nights against his former team. Chris Douglas and Ben King set up the power play goal that gave the Rebels a 1-0 lead.

Lethbridge replied with a power play goal of their own, their seventh of the weekend, as Logan Barlage stepped in and fired a shot through the five hole of Rebels goalie Byron Fancy 7:57 into the middle frame.

The next Hurricanes power play would also be an eventful one, but this time in favour of the Rebels, twice.

Tarzwell put the Rebels up 2-1 when he collected a perfect saucer pass from Chris Douglas and beat Tetachuk for his second goal of the game at the 15:41 mark.

Just 1:42 later Arshdeep Bains slid a long pass into the Hurricanes zone for Ben King to pick up and beat Tetachuk through the five hole for another Rebels shorthanded goal and a 3-1 Red Deer lead through two periods.

“To get a shorthanded one and to get another one, those are backbreakers,” Sutter remarked. “That was a really big turning point in the game.”

Unlike the previous two games the Rebels would not cough up their lead in this game and would in fact build on it in the third period.

Bains put the game to bed when he picked up a loose puck in the Hurricanes slot and scored his third goal of the season, on a Rebels power play, at the 13:19 mark.

Jace Isley pushed home his own rebound for goal number two on the season at 15:56 to round out the scoring in the Rebels’ first regulation win of the season.

Red Deer outshot Lethbridge 35-28 on the night and was 2-for-5 on the power play. They also held the potent Hurricanes power play, which had gone 6-for-10 in the previous two games of the weekend, to 1-for-9 in this one while also scoring the two shorthanded goals.

“Our penalty kill was awesome. It was unreal. We were moving, the bench was going. No momentum going their way,” said Tarzwell. “You can’t beat it. It was really good.”

“The penalty killing was really good. We changed some things up and the kids adjusted to it well,” said Sutter.

“We deserved the win, we earned it. That’s the thing about this game, you have to earn victories.”

Fancy was solid in net for the Rebels and earned third star honours. King took second star honours while Tarzwell was named the game’s first star.

The Rebels now get ready to take on the Edmonton Oil Kings for three games in a row starting Friday (March 19) in Edmonton at 6 p.m.