(Photo: Red Deer Rebels/Rob Wallator)

By Troy Gillard

close, but not quite

Rebels edged 4-3 in overtime by Calgary

Apr 29, 2021 | 10:12 PM

The Red Deer Rebels played a solid overall hockey game Thursday night but still came up just short in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Calgary Hitmen in Western Hockey League action at the Westerner Park Centrium.

Red Deer dropped its 13^th game in a row and fell to 2-15-3-0 on the season while Calgary improved to 9-7-2-0 on the year.

“I thought we deserved a better fate,” suggested Rebels Assistant Coach Ryan Colville.

“In overtime, 40 seconds left, there was just one little mistake. I thought as a group we were good. We battled, we played hard. We outchanced them. I think there were times when it was back and forth and a little bit more wide open than we wanted. I thought as a group we played well and we deserved a better fate.”

Calgary opened the scoring 2:39 into the first period on a shorthanded goal by Josh Prokop, who took a pass from Riley Stotts and beat Rebels goalie Byron Fancy for his ninth goal of the season.

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Red Deer tied it at the 13:19 mark as rookie forward Carter Anderson found a bouncing puck in the slot and firing it past Calgary goalie Jack McNaughton for his second goal on the year.

The Hitmen retook the lead at 17:40 when Jackson van de Leest tipped one past Fancy for his third goal of the campaign.

But the Rebels pulled even once again with just 7.5 seconds left in the period as Jace Weir’s point shot clipped a Calgary player and snuck past McNaughton for the rookie defenceman’s second tally on the year. An entertaining first period of play ended with the Rebels and Hitmen tied 2-2.

Calgary scored the lone goal of period two just past the midway point as Riley Fiddler-Schultz ripped home a shot from the slot for his fifth goal of the year and a 3-2 Hitmen lead.

The Rebels erased a one-goal deficit for the third time on the night an absolute beauty of a goal by Chris Douglas in the third period. The veteran forward took a long stretch pass up the middle from Kyle Masters and slid the puck through McNaughton’s five hole for his sixth goal of the year at the 12:48 mark tying things up at 3-3.

The game went to overtime where the Rebels carried the puck for much of the extra frame but couldn’t settle it down – on a night where the warm Centrium ice was tough to negotiate all game long – to get the scoring chance they were looking for.

Calgary held in long enough for Sean Tschiegerl to find Cael Zimmerman along in the Rebels slot. Zimmerman then fired home the game winner with 40.9 seconds left on the clock.

Red Deer outshot Calgary 31-26 on the night and was 0-for-2 on the powerplay while the Hitmen were 0-for-1.

The Rebels are back in action Saturday night when the welcome the first-place Edmonton Oil Kings to the Westerner Park Centrium. Game time is 7 p.m. 106.7 REWIND Radio has the radio broadcast starting at 6:50 p.m.