The Rebels Dallon Melin gets acquainted with Moose Jaw's Cole Jordan during the second period of Saturday night's game at the Peavey Mart Centrium in Red Deer. (Red Deer Rebels/Rob Wallator)

By Daniel Barker-Tremblay

5-4 Loss

Rebels lose feisty affair to Warriors

Jan 23, 2022 | 10:50 AM

Following a 5-2 win over the Hurricanes in Lethbridge Friday night, the Red Deer Rebels lost a hard-fought battle to the Moose Jaw Warriors on home ice at the Peavey Centrium Saturday night.

The Rebels opened the scoring in the first period at 4:10 when Ben King beat Warriors goaltender Jackson Unger to make it 1-0. It was King’s 27^th goal of the season, with Arshdeep Bains assisting on the play.

Shortly after the celebrated goal, King found himself in the box for a two minute roughing penalty. With the game’s first power play opportunity given to the Warriors, it didn’t take long for Denton Mateychuk to take advantage, scoring his eighth goal of the season at 5:03 to tie things up at one goal a-piece. Assists came from Jagger Firkus and Daemon Hunt.

The Rebels responded, however, with a tie breaker at 6:47 when Jace Isley scored his 7^th goal of the season, assisted by Liam Keeler to make it 2-1 Rebels.

Then a roughing penalty to Red Deer’s Arshdeep Bains gave Moose Jaw another power play opportunity, resulting in Daemon Hunt scoring his 10^th goal of the season at 10:35, with assists coming from Ryder Korczak and Denton Mateychuk to make it 2-2.

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At the end of the period, it was Red Deer outshooting Moose Jaw 11-7 to that point.

The second period saw the Warriors Jagger Firkus put the visitors up 3-2 when he beat Rebels netminder Connor Ungar at 4:50 for his 24^th goal of the season, with an assist coming from Nathan Pilling.

The Rebels Ben King, however, tied the game back up at 3-3 when he scored his 28^th goal of the season and second of the game at 7:06, with Arshdeep Bains and Jhett Larson assisting on the play.

The feisty second period which saw multiple fighting majors handed out and game misconducts to Moose Jaw’s Robert Basco and Red Deer’s Jackson van de Leest, ended with the Rebels outshooting the Warriors 10-7, for a two-period total of 21-14 in favour of Red Deer.

Moose Jaw then pulled ahead in the third when Cordel Larson scored his eighth goal of the season at 3:29, with assists coming from Daemon Hunt and Denton Mateychuk to make it 4-3 Warriors.

In an attempt to tie the game, the Rebels pulled goaltender Connor Ungar from between the pipes at 18:18 to have the extra skater. Moose Jaw capitalized on that move however, when Ryder Korczak scored his 14^th goal of the season, an empty netter and the eventual game winner at 18:28 to put the Warriors up 5-3. The goal caused a pile up of fights near centre ice.

Before the end of the period though, Red Deer’s Liam Keeler scored his 15^th goal of the season at 19:38 to make it a 5-4 final. Arshdeep Bains and Christoffer Sedoff assisted on the play.

Moose Jaw outshot Red Deer 8-7 in the third period, but it was the Rebels who outshot the Warriors 28-22 overall after three periods.

Moose Jaw went 2/6 on the power play, while Red Deer was 0/2 with the man advantage.

The loss drops the Rebels record to 24-12-2-1 with 51 points and still in second place in the WHL’s Central Division, while Moose Jaw improves to 19-16-3-1 with 42 points, good for third place in the East Division.

The Rebels return to action on Tuesday, Jan. 25, when they visit the Swift Current Broncos for a 7 p.m. face-off.