Rebels dominate once again in 4-1 win over Hitmen

With the Hitmen’s Trey Patterson on penalty for slashing by the end of the first, Red Deer’s Kai Uchacz scored his second goal of the game and 28^th of the season on a rebound from the high slot, with just three seconds left to the period. Assisted by Jayden Grubbe and Christoffer Sedoff, the power play goal brought the Rebels to a 3-0 lead.

After 20 minutes of play, it was the Hitmen who outshot the Rebels 14-11.

In the second, a few missed power play opportunities on both sides and an equal amount of shots on goal (10) left the period scoreless.

In the final period, the Hitmen came hot out of the gate when David Adaszynski scored just 54 seconds in. His ninth goal of the season on Rebels’ netminder Rhett Stoesser, assisted by Oliver Tulk and Blake Heward, put the team on the scoreboard, still behind 3-1.

However, at 10:43, in a passing session initiated by Red Deer’s Kai Uchacz, the puck ended up back in his hands to score his 29^th goal of the season and third of the game in the top right corner of the net. His second hat trick in two games was helped by Kalan Lind and Frantisek Formanek, putting the Rebels in a 4-1 lead.

The Rebels outshot the Hitmen in the third period 7-5, with Calgary claiming slight puck dominance overall (29-28).

The Rebels went 1/5 on the power play while the Hitmen went 0/5 with the man advantage.

All three stars at this evening’s game were given to the Rebels with Frantisek Formanek receiving the third star for his one goal and one assist. Goaltender Rhett Stoesser earned the second star for saving 28 shots while Kai Uchacz was awarded the first star for his hat trick this game.

Rebels Coach Steve Konowalchuk said he believes netminder Rhett Stoesser lead the way as the best player of the game with his increasing confidence levels.

“That first save on the penalty kill is a big save. It’s a zero-zero hockey game, he makes that big save, we go down and we score. A lot of being a good goaltender is a timely save and we’ve seen that from him in the last couple of games,” he said. “He’s done a good job; he’s a good character kid and works hard every day.”

While he says the team played “sloppy” in the second period, Konowalchuk continued to say the final period taught the team an important lesson.

“You’re not always going to be as sharp but you can’t make it a whole game,” said the Coach.

“We could’ve panicked and we could’ve got away from our game,” he said. “Instead we started playing the right way, the best we did, and we really didn’t allow them to put a lot of momentum on us in the third period.”

The win keeps the Rebels in first place within the Central Division with a record of 24-6-1-3 while the loss puts the Hitmen in third place with 18-10-3-1.

The Rebels will play the Edmonton Oil Kings this Friday at Rogers Place. Face-off is at 7 p.m. with the broadcast live on 106.7 REWIND radio.

by Alessia Proietti

Rebels dominate once again in 4-1 win over Hitmen

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