Rebels win overtime thriller over Wheat Kings

In the second, it was Brandon who broke the scoreless tie at 4:34 when Nolan Ritchie managed a between the legs shot from the top of the crease, beating a sprawled out Rhett Stoesser, making it 1-0 Brandon. It was Ritchie’s 16^th goal of the season with Quinn Mantei and Kayden Sadhr-Kang picking up the assists on the play.

The period would end with the Wheat Kings up 1-0 and Brandon outshooting the Rebels 12-11 for a two-period total of 22-21 in favour of the visitors.

Then with the Rebels still without a goal at the 4:50 mark of the third period, Red Deer’s Kai Uchacz took it upon himself to spark his team and the Peavey Mart Centrium crowd when he dropped the gloves with Brandon’s Luke Shipley in an entertaining tussle, injecting some adrenaline into the building and setting the stage for a dramatic finish.

Red Deer’s Kalan Lind was also called for tripping prior to the whistle, giving the Wheat Kings the man advantage but the Rebels Rhett Stoesser made some key saves to keep the puck out of the net and his team within striking distance.

And strike the Rebels did, when with 2:09 left to play in the third, Captain Jayden Grubbe earned his 12^th goal of the season, on the power play, with a beautiful tip off a pass from Kai Uchacz to tie the game 2-2. Christoffer Sedoff was also credited with an assist on the play following a hooking penalty to Brandon’s Anthony Wilson.

After 60 minutes it was tied at two with Brandon outshooting Red Deer 11-7 in the final 20 minutes for a three-period total of 33-28 in favour of the Wheat Kings.

Then, in the three-on-three five minute overtime period, it took just 39 seconds for the Rebels to pull out the victory when Kalan Lind corraled a bouncing puck in the crease and got it behind Brandon goalie Nicholas Jones to make it a thrilling 2-1 overtime final.

Rebels head coach Steve Konowalchuk admits his team wasn’t as sharp as he wanted them to be but when the game was on the line, they found a way to win.

“They dug deep,” he explains. “You go down the line and first of all, Stoesser made some huge saves to keep it to one goal. The penalty kill really won us the game at the end. I think it just showed a lot of character to find a way and fight through and get it done when they needed to.”

Kalan Lind, who scored the game winning goal, describes what he recalls before lighting the lamp for the overtime winner.

“Uchacz was just trying to get the puck on net and I saw it in the air and hit it with my hand and then kind of just threw it on net and it must have found its way through. I don’t even know where it went in yet. I haven’t seen it.”

Lind acknowledges how good it feels to beat the Wheat Kings after losing to them both times in their previous meetings earlier in the season.

“We wanted to come out with a little bit more fire than we did but I think we kind of found that fire by the end of the game.”

Shots on goal finished 33-30 in favour of Brandon, with the Rebels going 1/6 on the power play while Brandon went 0/7 with the man advantage.

Red Deer’s Rhett Stoesser was named the game’s third star with just one goal against and a save percentage of .969 on the night.

Meanwhile, Brandon’s netminder Nicholas Jones was named the game’s second star with two goals against and a save percentage of .933.

The Rebels Jayden Grubbe, who scored the game-tying goal, was named the game’s first star.

The win improves the Rebels record to 31-8-1-3 with 66 points and still in first place in the WHL’s Central Division, while the loss drops the Wheat Kings record to 18-20-5-0 with 41 points, and remaining in fifth place in the league’s East Division.

The Rebels next action is Sunday, January 22, 2023, when they travel to Calgary to take on the Hitmen. It’s a 4:00 p.m. face-off MST.

You can catch all the action live on 106.7 Rewind Radio.

by Sheldon Spackman

Rebels win overtime thriller over Wheat Kings

What's Trending