By Troy Gillard

12th loss in a row

Rebels edged 3-2 in Medicine Hat

Apr 19, 2021 | 9:42 PM

It was an improved effort by the Red Deer Rebels Monday night in Medicine Hat, but it still wasn’t enough as they came up on the short end of a 3-2 decision at the hands of the Tigers.

The Rebels suffered their 12^th consecutive loss and fell to 2-15-2-0 on the season while the Tigers won their ninth straight to improve to 12-3-0-1.

Chase Coward got the call between the pipes for Red Deer for his first start of the season. Coward, who signed with the Rebels in 2018 after being added from the Prairie Hockey Academy, made a pair of appearances with the Rebels last season.

Medicine Hat opened the scoring with yet another powerplay goal as Ryan Chyzowski beat Coward for this eighth goal of the year 12:58 into the first period.

Red Deer replied fairly quickly at the 15:02 mark as Dallon Melin slid home his second goal of the year past Tigers goalie Beckett Langkow.

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The Tigers took a 2-1 lead in period two when Rhett Parsons fired a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle that deflected off the stick of Rebels defender Jace Weir and past Coward. The first WHL goal of Parsons’ career came at the 12:36 mark.

Medicine Hat expanded their lead to 3-1 midway through the third period when Brett Kemp stole the puck behind the Rebels net then slid it to Oren Shtrom who put past Coward for his fourth goal of the year.

Red Deer made it interesting in the final minute when Chris Douglas tipped home a shot from Ben King for his fifth goal of the season on a powerplay with 23.5 seconds left to play. But that’s as close as the Rebels could get as Medicine Hat drained the remaining time from the clock to seal the win.

Medicine Hat outshot Red Deer 35-29 on the night and was 1-for-1 on the powerplay while the Rebels were 1-for-3.

Tigers head coach Willie Desjardins earned his 376^th win behind the bench to set a new franchise record.

Coward was named the game’s third star on the strength of his 32-save performance. Parson was second star while Kemp earned first star honours with a pair of assists on the night.

The Rebels will be off this coming weekend with the remainder of their schedule for the season to be announced later this week.