The Red Deer Rebels play against the Saskatoon Blades in game three of the playoff series on Tuesday at the Peavey Mart Centrium. (Red Deer Rebels/Taylor Lachance)

By Alessia Proietti

New goaltender

Rebels lose 8-5 in hard battle against the Blades for game three of playoff series

Apr 16, 2024 | 10:37 PM

A true testament of never giving up, the Red Deer Rebels lost 8-5 in their third game of the WHL playoff series against the Saskatoon Blades on Tuesday night at the Peavey Mart Centrium.

In a best-of-seven series for round two, the Rebels are now 0-3 against the Blades, a complete reversal from last season’s playoff series where Saskatoon lost the first three games to Red Deer in the second round.

Of particular note, Taylor Tabashniuk, a 2007-born goaltender from Regina and the Rebels’ 2022 draft pick, made his WHL debut tonight with the team. While Head Coach Dave Struch confirmed netminders Chase Wutzke and Rhett Stoesser were both injured, he did not give any further details or information on their returns.

In a heated first period, the Blades’ Charlie Wright opened the scoreboard 1-0 just two and a half minutes in with a goal on Rebels netminder Tabashniuk.

But just 14 seconds later, Red Deer’s Carson Latimer came from behind the net to score his fifth goal of the season as he was falling by the crease of Saskatoon goaltender Evan Gardner. After review, the goal was allowed, assisted by Ollie Josephson and Hunter Mayo to tie the game 1-1.

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The Blades regained the lead with two goals during the seventh minute, the first by Rowan Calvert and the second by Egor Sidorov. The score was now 3-1 for the visitors.

With the Rebels’ Samuel Drancak sent to the box for tripping at the halfway mark, Carson Birnie still managed to pick up the puck from their side of the neutral zone and score his third goal this playoff season from the faceoff circle. The unassisted shorthanded goal cut their deficit to 3-2.

After 20 minutes of play, Saskatoon was outshooting Red Deer 14-10.

The tables were turned in the second period when the Rebels’ Quentin Bourne scored two minutes in from the high slot, with the help of Dwayne Jean Jr. and Luke Vlooswyk. His first career goal in the WHL tied the game 3-3.

But less than a minute later, the Blades’ Trevor Wong took back the lead 4-3.

At 8:15, Saskatoon’s Sidorov pushed their lead to 5-3 with his second goal of the game.

But at the 15-minute mark, the Rebels’ Kalan Lind picked up a loose puck from behind the net and tucked it in short side. His fourth goal this season, with Mats Lindgren and Frantisek Formanek getting the helpers, put them behind 5-4.

The Blades swapped out goaltender Gardner for Austin Elliott at this point.

With less than two minutes left in regulation, Saskatoon’s Sidorov earned a hat trick with his third goal of the game, making it a 6-4 lead.

This time it was the Rebels who outshot the Blades 14-12 in the middle frame.

In the final period, with Red Deer’s Derek Thurston sent to the box for cross checking, Saskatoon’s Brandon’s Lisowsky scored a power play goal at 6:27, the game now 7-4 in their favor.

Midway through the period, with the Rebels’ Formanek on a game misconduct and major spearing penalty, the team’s Talon Brigley managed to score a gorgeous goal, stealing the puck from within their own zone and beating the defence with a 360°-spin to score a goal in front of the crease. His second goal this season was also the second shorthanded goal for the home team, now tailing 7-5 behind the Blades.

With Red Deer pulling goaltender Tabashniuk out of the net for the final three minutes of the game, it was to their demise as Saskatoon’s Lukas Hansen scored an empty netter at 18:40, closing their win at 8-5.

With Tabashniuk back in the net, it was not enough for the Rebels to catch up.

Both teams had 13 shots on goal in the third period.

Shots on goal

SAS: 39

RD: 37

Power play

SAS: 1/4

RD: 0/2

Three stars

1st: Egor Sidorov (SAS) – 3G

2nd: Trevor Wong (SAS) – 1G, 3A

3rd: Talon Brigley (RD) – 1G

Rebels Head Coach Dave Struch commended netminder Tabashniuk for his first game’s efforts against the top team in the league.

“He handled himself well. There was no point that I thought of pulling him out. I thought that he made some big saves for us once he settled in. He played against a really good team with good offensive players, but I thought that he hung in there. I felt that we could’ve done a better job for him at certain points in the game but I did also think that we played a really hard game here tonight,” he said.

He gave credit to the players for their resiliency, tenacity, and will to compete.

“We were in search of second and third chances and our guys did a good job of that tonight. We did talk about playing on the inside; we worked hard there. The intensity, we moved our feet good. We got the loose pucks and created some offense,” he said.

With tomorrow night’s game a do-or-die for the Rebels this playoff season, he said the team will have to, “not give up; like we did tonight. I didn’t think we quit at all so come out and leave everything on the ice.”

The Rebels and Blades will face off tomorrow night for game four of the series. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. with the broadcast live on 106.7 REWIND radio 30 minutes prior.

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