Rebels blueliner Mats Lindgren tastes blood in the team's final game of the 2022-23 regular season. (Red Deer Rebels/Rob Wallator)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

bring on the hitmen

Rebels wrap regular season with 5-1 drubbing of ‘Canes; playoff opponent determined

Mar 25, 2023 | 9:48 PM

The Red Deer Rebels’ 5-1 win Saturday night at home over Lethbridge was all a formality in concluding the regular season.

The Rebels wrapped up the Central Division title and second seed in the Eastern Conference a couple weeks ago, and have been waiting to find out who they’ll play in the first round of the WHL Playoffs, which start March 31.

That’ll be the Calgary Hitmen.

Coming into today, Calgary, Medicine Hat and Swift Current sat 7th, 8th and 9th with 68, 67 and 66 points, respectively — Calgary had two games left against Edmonton, today and tomorrow, with Swifty and Med Hat playing one another tonight with 8th seed on the line.

First, Calgary beat Edmonton earlier on Saturday, meaning they’re locked into 7th, and now have to deal with the Red Deer Rebels.

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The Tigers, who beat the Broncos 4-3, will face number one seed Winnipeg, with the loser of that game eliminated from playoff contention.

Calgary plays its final game Sunday at 1 p.m., though as we now know, it is meaningless standings-wise. More on the Rebels vs. Hitmen playoff series is beneath the following game recap…

“It was good in the first, guys were ready to go just like you like, and as the game wound down, we got a lot of guys ice time,” said Rebels Head Coach Steve Konowalchuk post-game.

“It’s nice to be able to say now we can get ready for the playoffs. The last seven to ten games, it’s been getting pretty exciting, and hard to not look ahead. We’re really proud of the regular season, but now it’s playoffs and that’s what it’s all about.

“[Kyle] Kelsey has been back lately to where he was most of the season. We have two goalies we can believe in [going forward].”

Scoring summary

On this night, there was no scoring in the opening frame; however the Rebels outshot Lethbridge 19-1. Port Alberni, B.C.’s Koen Cleaver stopped all the pucks flung his way in what was just his second game of the season.

Cleaver’s luck ran out in the second.

Talon Brigley (5th) scored shorthanded at 2:41, then Christoffer Sedoff (5th) made it 2-0 Red Deer at 9:27.

Just 3:10 later, Hunter Mayo (18th) tallied to extend the lead to three, and at 17:38, Frantisek Formanek (13th) beat Cleaver on the power play to dig the Hurricanes’ hole even deeper.

The final period of the regular season started with Lethbridge breaking the shutout, Tyson Zimmer (19th) scoring at 5:27.

But Kalen Lind (16th) restored the four-goal lead at 7:56, and that was all she wrote.

Kyle Kelsey stopped 11 of 12 shots faced and added an assist in his 20th win of the season.

Shots

LET: 12

RD: 39

Power play

LET: 0/4

RD: 1/5

Three Stars

1st: Jace Isley – +1 tonight; 30G, 26A, 56P in 67GP – graduating from WHL with 52 goals, 51 assists and 103 points in 205 games – led WHL this season with 7 shorthanded goals

2nd: Christoffer Sedoff – 1G tonight; 5G, 46A, 51P in 59GP this season – graduating from WHL with 17 goals, 114 assists and 131 points in 185 games

3rd: Ben King (did not play in game) – 17G, 18A, 35P in 30GP this season – graduating from WHL with 106 goals, 134 assists and 240 points in 236 games

Red Deer Rebels scoring leaders

Goals: Kai Uchacz – 50

Assists: Jayden Grubbe – 49

Points: Kai Uchacz – 85

+/-: Jace Isley – +26

PIMs: Frantisek Formanek – 104

PPG: Kai Uchacz – 16

READ MORE: Rebels’ netminders, stalwarts through record win streak, share WHL monthly honours

Up next for the Rebels… the 2023 WHL Playoffs.

WHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinals – #2 Red Deer Rebels vs. #7 Calgary Hitmen
*all games are scheduled to start at 7 p.m. MT; the radio broadcast starts live on 106.7 REWIND Radio starting at 6:30 for home games, and 6:50 for away games

Game One – Friday, March 31

Game Two – Saturday, April 1

Game Three – Monday, April 3

Game Four – Wednesday, April 5

Game Five* – Friday, April 7

Game Six* – Sunday, April 9

Game Seven* – Tuesday, April 11

*If necessary

This will be the seventh playoff series between the Rebels and Hitmen with Red Deer having won four of the previous six. The last time was in 2016 when the Rebels won round one in five games.

In eight games against the Hitmen this season, Red Deer went 6-1-1-0, including a 9-0 win in their last meeting on March 11. Calgary’s record was 2-4-2-0. The Rebels outscored Calgary 34-15 over the eight games.

Single game tickets are available at ticketsalberta.com, with playoff packages available through reddeerrebels.com.