Red Deer Rebels Captain Jayden Grubbe battles with Trey Patterson in front of the net during a game against first round playoff opponent the Calgary Hitmen at the Peavey Mart Centrium on Dec. 29, 2022 (Red Deer Rebels/Rob Wallator)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

LET'S GOOOOOOO!

Despite recent 9-0 blowout, Rebels not taking playoff series against Hitmen lightly

Mar 28, 2023 | 5:18 PM

When the second-seeded Red Deer Rebels open their first round WHL Playoffs series with the seventh-seeded Calgary Hitmen this Friday, they’ll be just three weeks removed from giving them a 9-0 beat-down.

But if you ask members of the club, they consider that result an outlier; not reason for being over-confident going into the best-of-seven.

The night prior to the nine-goal Saddledome drubbing, Calgary beat Red Deer 4-3 in overtime at the Peavey Mart Centrium.

This campaign, the teams played eight times, and it was tighter than the season series records may suggest.

Red Deer went 6-1-1-0 against Calgary, while the Hitmen were 2-4-2-0, outscoring them 34-18. Dominant, right?

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Wrong.

Each one-goal game, of which there were three, required overtime; and two others had an empty net goal to seal the victory.

Take away the 9-0 excellence of execution game, and the goal differential becomes a not so lopsided 25-18.

“We can’t think about that one game too much,” says forward Kai Uchacz, agreeing the result is a write-off. “We know they’re a good team and can play with lots of speed. They’ll come out ready to work, so we have to be prepared and expect their best.”

Last week, the 19-year-old from Okotoks, AB became the sixth Rebel to ever score 50 goals in a season. Reaching the benchmark also meant the Rebels have 50-goal scorers in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1992-93 (Dean Titlgen) and 1993-94 (Craig Reichert).

His tally was second only to Connor Bedard who had (REG) 71 — and in 11 fewer games than Uchacz, mind you, but who’s counting?

Uchacz added 35 assists for a total of 85 points, 13th-best in the Dub. His 12 first goals led the league, as did his four shootout goals, two shootout game-winners and seven shootout attempts.

While Uchacz, who was named to the WHL Central Division’s First All-Star Team Tuesday, will be relied on for offense versus Calgary, it won’t come easy, he insists.

“They play hard, like to finish checks and play a really in-your-face style,” says Uchacz, who had eight goals — including two hat tricks on Dec. 29 and Jan. 1 — plus two assists in the eight-game season series. “It’s something we’ve prepared for all year. We like to play a heavy style too. We have a good group, some of which went through playoffs last year, so we’re getting excited.”

Captain Jayden Grubbe concurs with Uchacz that claiming ultimate victory in the opening round will be difficult.

“When you know you’ve clinched, you’re just waiting to get started. We’ve been counting down the days,” says the Calgary native who was named to the WHL Central Division’s Second All-Star Team on Tuesday.

“They [Calgary] keep it tight, they work hard and they’re a good team. We’re expecting their best and we’ll have to play our best to beat them. We’re focusing on what we can do and our game plan.”

The game plan: Take it game-by-game and shift-by shift, and they’ll achieve what they want.

“You can’t look too far ahead and get overwhelmed. You have to reset after every shift and every game. It can be a long series, but we also have to have fun with it.”

A fun crowd for home games, and hopefully plenty of fans who make the trip to YYC will help that cause.

Red Deer was 3-0-1-0 against the Hitmen in the four games played at the Peavey Mart Centrium, and 3-1-0-0 on Saddledome ice.

“I think so,” says Grubbe, asked if there’s belief this squad can go far. “Look up and down our lineup, from forward down to D to our goaltenders, our depth is really good this year. Everyone is excited, and if we work and compete like we can, we can go a long way.”

Red Deer finished 43-19-3-3, with the third-best winning percentage in the Eastern Conference and fifth-best in the WHL.

They scored 248 goals (3.64/game), which was ninth-best league-wide, and only allowed 189 (2.78/game), fourth-best, on the back of solid goaltending.

Kyle Kelsey had 21 wins (13th) with a 2.64 GAA (10th among starting goalies) and a .907SV% (13th among starters). Fellow tender Rhett Stoesser, who is out for the remainder of the season, added 19 wins with a 2.35 GAA and .910SV%; each of them were in their first WHL season.

Chase Coward, who finished the season with Red Deer alongside Kelsey, had one win in four games played, stopping 110 of 122 shots faced.

For Head Coach Steve Konowalchuk, the assessment is that this team is ready, even with Ben King (30GP, 17G, 18A, 35P) listed as day-to-day with injury.

There doesn’t need to be a lot managing, he says, alluding to the psychology of beating the team you’re about to square off against 9-0.

“The game Calgary played against us here and beat us, that’s who they are. They had some injuries which probably factored into their season,” says Konowalchuk, now in his second season as Rebels bench boss.

“We had a fairly successful regular season because of the mentality of not getting too far ahead of ourselves. Whether you get good or bad results, you have to keep emotions in check.”

That’ll be key as far as discipline goes, as the Rebels racked up the second most penalty minutes in the WHL this season, with 987. Thankfully, they had the fifth-best penalty kill at 81.0 per cent, allowing just 60 power play goals, all while scoring 16 shorthanded markers, second-best.

Calgary had 830 penalty minutes, 14th-most, and had the best penalty kill league-wide at 83.7 per cent, and nine shorties.

Meantime, Red Deer’s power play was sixth-best at 27.1 per cent. Calgary also managed a good mark at 19.4 per cent, but that was 16th-best.

“We like our team. I like the amount of grit and skill we have. Special teams needs to stay where it was in the regular season,” says Konowalchuk.

“We know we’re the type of team who plays hard every shift. We don’t rely on one person, we don’t have room for casual moments, and if there are no passengers, we’re a team who believes we can have success.”

WHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinals – #2 Red Deer Rebels vs. #7 Calgary Hitmen
*all games are scheduled to start at 7 p.m. MT except game six; 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 – 2 p.m. start

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.

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