The Lethbridge Hurricanes' Brayden Edwards and Red Deer Rebels' Arshdeep Bains play at the Peavey Mart Centrium Saturday night. (Red Deer Rebels/Rob Wallator)

By Alessia Proietti

3-2 loss

Rebels lose to Hurricanes in shootout

Mar 19, 2022 | 11:58 PM

The Red Deer Rebels have suffered back-to-back losses following a 3-2 shootout loss to the Lethbridge Hurricanes at the Peavey Mart Centrium Saturday night.

The evening began on a positive note, however, with Rebels’ dressing room attendant Mikel McIver dropping the puck in a ceremonial face-off in honor of World Down Syndrome day. By the end of the game, the crowd was at the edge of their seats in the team’s ninth overtime game of the season. If that wasn’t enough, the 11 player shootout kept the pressure high, as the Rebels have only had two other shootout games this season.

Captains Jett Jones for the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Jayden Grubbe for the Red Deer Rebels at the Ceremonial Puck Drop with Rebels’ dressing room attendant Mikel McIver Saturday evening. (Red Deer Rebels/Rob Wallator)

The first period was steady until 10:14 when the Rebels’ Kalan Lind scored the first goal of the evening on Lethbridge netminder Bryan Thomson. His 18^th this season was assisted by Jackson van de Leest and Arshdeep Bains.

After 20 minutes of play, the Rebels had a 1-0 lead and outshot the Hurricanes 14-6.

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In the second, not a goal was scored, nor did any team receive a man advantage during the period. The Rebels outshot the Hurricanes once again 15-9 for a two period total of 29-15 in favour of Red Deer after 4- minutes.

The third period brought all the excitement though as both teams played hard to make it out on top.

Within the first two minutes, Yegor Klavdiev scored his 15^th goal this season on Rebels goaltender Chase Coward. Nolan Bentham and Brayden Edwards claimed the assists, now tying the game 1-1.

At the halfway point, Lethbridge’s Tyson Laventure scored his ninth goal of the WHL season on a rebound. The assists were made by Joe Arntsen and Alex Thacker, putting the visitors in a 2-1 lead.

Then, just when it looked like the game might be over, the Rebels’ Arshdeep Bains salvaged the period while on a man advantage. With Lethbridge’s Tyson Laventure serving a penalty for having too many men, Bains scored a power play goal at 16:09. It was his 34^th goal of the season and was assisted by Liam Keeler and Ben King.

Not only did Bains make it a 2-2 tie but he pushed the game into overtime, something the Rebels haven’t seen since Dec. 31, 2021 in a 4-3 loss against the Moose Jaw Warriors at Mosaic Place.

Both teams had the same shots on goal (8-8) for the final period, for a three period total of 37-23 in favour of Red Deer.

In overtime, the Hurricanes had the only shots on goal, with two against Red Deer’s Chase Coward but without success. The game was now moving to a shootout, a sight even rarer for the Rebels, with their last on Dec. 28, 2021 in a 7-6 win against the Saskatoon Blades at SaskTel Centre.

Over the full game, the Rebels still dominated shots on goal (37-25). On the power play, the Rebels went 1/2 while the Hurricanes went 0/1.

In the shootout, 11 players on each team took a shot at the net. While Ben King and Jhett Larson were successful for the Rebels, it was the eventual goal from Lethbridge’s Briley Wood that brought the game to a close and their team to a 3-2 win.

Rebels coach Steve Konowalchuk expressed that while he was satisfied with the first two periods, he felt the third is where the game began to slip from their hands.

“I know we didn’t intentionally go out to kind of just defend the one goal lead but we look like, instead of pushing the pace a little bit we were out playing safe. We were just not forechecking and playing the game and wanting to try to create that second goal,” he said.

Taking the positives out of the game, Konowalchuk also gave a shout-out to goalie Chase Coward for his performance this evening.

The third star of the game went to the Rebel’s Arshdeep Bains for his assist and game saving goal. The second star was awarded to Red Deer’s Kalan Lind for the first goal of the night, while the first star went to Hurricanes’ goalie Bryan Thomson.

The loss for the Rebels drops their record to 39-17-2-2 with 82 points and second place in the WHL’s Central Division. The win for the Hurricanes, meanwhile, improves their record to 26-28-3-1 with 56 points and third in the Central Division.

The Rebels remain on home ice for their next game Friday, Mar. 25 against the Medicine Hat Tigers. Face-off is 7 p.m. at the Peavey Mart Centrium with the broadcast live on 106.7 REWIND radio.