Swift Current Broncos' Rylan Gould fights for the puck against Red Deer Rebels' Carter Anderson. (Red Deer Rebels/Rob Wallator)

By rdnewsNOW staff

striving for first place

Rebels sweep Broncos in home-and-home series

Jan 29, 2022 | 10:16 AM

The Red Deer Rebels beat their Central Division rival from Swift Current for a second straight game on Friday, defeating them 4-2 at the Centrium in the back half of a home-and-home.

Coming in, the Rebels sat second in the division with 53 points, while the Broncos came in sitting in 4th with 33 points.

The first period ended scoreless, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying by the Rebels, who found the post and missed on a wraparound opportunity late. Red Deer led 10-5 in the shots department.

In the second, Jayden Grubbe (8th) broke the ice, with Arshdeep Bains and Christoffer Sedoff getting assists, at the 4:55 mark. Bains’s helper gives him 56 points, second best in the WHL behind Saskatoon Blade Kyle Crnkovic’s 57 — Bains has the most assists league-wide with 37.

Red Deer found themselves on the power play a few minutes later, with Josh Davies earning a double minor for slew-footing. Kalan Lind (8th) would capitalize at 8:06, with Ben King assisting.

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At 13:46 of the middle frame, the Broncos cut the lead in half when Raphael Pelletier (12th) put the puck past Chase Coward — and after two, the home team led 2-1. Red Deer added 20 more shots in the period to Swift Current’s nine.

Early in the third, Red Deer restored its two-goal lead when Ben King (30th) scored his team and league-leading thirtieth goal of the season. Blake Gustafson had the assist, with the goal coming at 5:14.

Just 55 seconds later, however, Mathew Ward (10th) once again drew the Broncos within one, this time while shorthanded. It was just the second shorty against the Rebels this season, which is tied for third-best in the WHL.

Swift Current down just one, and time running out, goaltender Isaac Poulter came off for the extra attacker. It was for not though as Liam Keeler (17th) scored his own shorthanded goal to seal the deal for Red Deer. That was Red Deer’s fifth shorthanded tally of the ’21-’22 campaign, tied for fourth-best.

Red Deer ended the night with 40 shots to the Broncos’ 24.

With playoffs on the horizon, Rebels Head Coach Steve Konowalchuk believes his team is fighting hard and striving to catch Edmonton.

“Swift Current, they’re playing good hockey, desperate hockey right now. They’re battling for a playoff spot,” he said. “They play hard and they played a smart game, but I thought our guys, we were willing to grind. (We) maybe could’ve scored a couple more goals, we hit a little bit of adversity, but we dug in, (and) we kept playing.”

Rebels captain Jayden Grubbe said the team has its eyes on where it wants to be at the end of the season.

“Now the game’s over, we’re moving on until tomorrow and we’re thinking about that game. It’s three in three here this weekend, so it’s a big weekend for us and we have some work to do to catch up to Edmonton,” the 19-year-old Calgarian said. “I think it starts a big weekend here and we’re just taking it one game at a time.”

The Rebels went 1/7 on the power play, with Swift Current going 0/3.

Chase Coward stopped 22 of 24 shots to improve to 11-7-0-1 (2.49 GAA, .911 SV%), while Poulter falters to 12-12-3-1, stopping 36 of 40.

Red Deer also earned each of the three stars honours:

First star: Jayden Grubbe (1G, 6 shots, +1, 13/22 FOW)
Second star: Ben King (1G, 1A, 3 shots, 13/19 FOW, scored game-winner)
Third star: Blake Gustafson (1A, +1)

The Rebels (26-12-2-1) now sit two points back of Edmonton (27-10-2-1) with 41 games played to the Oil Kings’ 40, but are also 16 points ahead of third place Calgary. The Broncos (14-20-4-1) remain fourth in the division

Red Deer is back at it Saturday night at the Centrium against Lethbridge (15-16-2-1) with puck drop at 7 p.m. The broadcast can be heard live on 106.7 REWIND Radio starting at 6:30. Red Deer then heads to Medicine Hat (8-25-3-1) for a 6 p.m. start on Sunday.

(with files from Alessia Proietti, Daniel Barker-Tremblay and Josh Hall)