Connor Ungar makes a save Saturday night at the Centrium. (Red Deer Rebels/Rob Wallator)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

not even close

Rebels blow away Hurricanes 8-1 for third straight win

Jan 29, 2022 | 10:29 PM

The Lethbridge Hurricanes were almost never in it Saturday night as they took on the Red Deer Rebels at the Peavey Mart Centrium.

It helps the Rebels have the league’s two leading point-getters, of course, but more on that later.

The home team scored early and scored often, ultimately winning 8-1 ahead of four straight on the road.

Coming in, Red Deer (26-12-2-1) sat second in the Central Division with 55 points, with Lethbridge (15-16-2-1) in fifth with 33.

It didn’t take long for Red Deer to get on the board, as Ben King (31st) added to his league-leading goal tally. Arshdeep Bains, who now co-leads the league in points with King, earned an assist on the power play marker for his 58th point of the year at the 3:11 mark.

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Dallon Melin (5th) added to the lead at 10:11 of the first, with captain Jayden Grubbe assisting.

The teams then played most of the middle frame without much of significance happening.

At the 13:46 mark, Liam Keeler (18th) made it 3-0 home team, Christoffer Sedoff getting the helper.

Sedoff and King then teamed up to get Keeler (19th) his second of the night just over a minute later at 15:09. It was after this goal that Canes tender Jared Picklyk, who’d allowed four goals on 28 shots.

Then, at 18:05 of the second period, King (32nd) beat back-up Harrison Meneghin to make it 5-0 after 40 minutes.

Unfortunately for Connor Ungar, a shutout wasn’t meant to be, as Logan Wormald (8th) scored on the power play just 48 seconds into the third.

But the Rebels seemingly took offense to that, scoring not once, not twice, but three more times to close out the game.

King (33rd) notched the hat trick at 8:09, the first of his career, with assists to Jace Weir and Frantisek Formanek to make it 6-1.

Carter Anderson (7th) made it 7-1 at 10:23 with assists to Blake Gustafson and Hunter Mayo.

Then Formanek (1st) scored shorthanded at 15:58 making it a final score of 8-1. Sedoff had the assist. Formanek’s goal was the Rebels 6th shorty of the season (tied-3rd WHL) and second in as many games. It was also the 2021 import draft first-round pick’s first career goal in the Western Hockey League since coming over from Chrudim, Czechia.

Red Deer and Lethbridge tied 39-39 in the shots department Saturday night. Red Deer went 2/3 with the man advantage, while the Canes went 1/4.

Connor Ungar (14-5-1-0) improves to a 2.27GAA and .918 SV%. Picklyk (5-4-0-0), who was pulled after the fourth Red Deer goal, took the loss. Meneghin ended up stopping seven of 11 shots in relief.

Red Deer swept the three stars honours:

First star: Ben King (3G, 1A, 8 shots, 12/19 FOW) >> T-1st in WHL in points (58), 1st in goals (33)
Second star: Liam Keeler (2G, 10/20 FOW)
Third star: Arshdeep Bains (2A) >> T-1st in WHL in points (58), 1st in assists (39)

Next up for the Rebels is their third game in three nights, Sunday at 6 p.m. in Medicine Hat. The broadcast starts live on 106.7 REWIND Radio at 5:50.