Improved Rebels effort comes up short in 3-1 loss to Oil Kings

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Matthew Robertson made it 2-0 11:26 into period two with yet another power play goal, Edmonton’s fifth of the weekend.

The Rebels thought they’d scored their first goal of the game when Dallon Melin helped jam the puck past Oil Kings goalie Sebastian Cossa after Keaton Sorensen took it to the net. But after it was initially ruled a good goal, the officials decided Melin pushed Cossa’s pad with his stick causing the puck to go into the Edmonton net. Alas it remained 2-0.

Jalen Luypen then made it 3-0 with 37 seconds left in the period as he found his own rebound off of a blocked shot and ripped one top shelf past Fancy for his fourth goal of the year.

With 18 seconds left in the period, rookie Kalan Lind dropped the mitts for a spirited tilt with Jake Neighbours of the Oil Kings, who’d just been hit hard into the boards by Rebels blue liner Mason Ward, who received a penalty on the play.

Lind had an even bigger moment when he got his stick on a point shot from Jace Weir to tip it past Cossa for his first Western Hockey League goal 13:16 into the final frame, a power play goal that made it 3-1.Weir also earned his first WHL point with the assist while Ethan Rowland had the second assist.

The Rebels pushed hard in the final minutes and came close to pulling within one as Arshdeep Bains rang a shot off the post, the third Rebel to do so on the night. That would be as close as Red Deer would get as Edmonton held on for the two-goal win.

“I thought we played pretty good really. We just have a hard time scoring. They got two power-play goals again on us and our specialty teams– we haven’t scored on our power play enough and our penalty killing hasn’t been very good,” said Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter.

“Five-on-five play we’ve actually played pretty good. We hit two or three posts and we had five two-on-ones and a breakaway and we got two shots on net. Those are scoring opportunities that when you don’t make the right play, you don’t make the pass or you’re shooting the puck and missing the net, you’re really not getting a quality scoring chance.”

Sutter had high praise for 16-year-old Lind, the team’s first pick at the 2020 WHL Draft.

“He gave us emotion. He gives us life. He’s a courageous young player. He’s got great skill and just has to get stronger. He scored a big goal and I just thought he was really solid. I thought the other kids were too.”

Rebels leading scorer Ben King and top defenceman Kyle Masters missed the game due to injuries.

Red Deer outshot Edmonton 28-27 on the night and was 1-for-6 on the power play while Edmonton 2-for-3.

Edmonton improved to 6-0-0-0 on the season while the Rebels fell to 2-5-2-0.

These two teams wrap up their three-game weekend series Sunday in Edmonton starting at 6 p.m. The game can be heard live on 106.7 REWIND Radio.