Brent Sutter and Cam Moon (left) during a hot-stove discussion with 2000-01 Red Deer Rebels Colby Armstrong, Bryce Thoma, Doug Lynch and Boyd Gordon. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall | @Vancan19

the chl's best team that year

Memorial Cup-winning Rebels inducted into Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame

Jul 20, 2024 | 9:59 PM

The 2000-2001 Red Deer Rebels, winners of that season’s Memorial Cup, were a team that really hated to lose, according to long-time play-by-play man Cam Moon.

The team was inducted Saturday into the Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame, alongside the legendary likes of Jarome Iginla, Dave King, Billy Dea, Kelly Kisio, Craig MacTavish and Shannon Szabados.

Moon, who in 2020 joined the Edmonton Oilers radio broadcast after 22 seasons with the Rebels, was on hand with a large chunk of that championship squad, for a reunion at Red Deer’s Bo’s Bar and Stage on Friday.

He and others shared sweet memories and reflected on the never say die attitude that team had.

In each of the first three rounds of the 2001 WHL Playoffs, the Rebels lost Game 1. In the conference final against Swift Current, they faced a 2-1 deficit; and to top off the ‘comeback kids’ mentality, they erased a 5-3 hole in the Mem Cup’s deciding game en route to a 6-5 overtime victory.

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“They were expected to be a pretty good team and were the number one team start to finish. They didn’t lose two in a row from the middle of December to the end of the year. They just continued on an upward trajectory from the get-go,” Moon says of the 54-win season that included a 7-0 start and 19-1-1 finish.

Long-time Red Deer Rebels owner Brent Sutter (left) and long-time Rebels broadcaster Cam Moon at the 2000-01 Red Deer Rebels reunion on July 19, 2024. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

“Adding Martin Erat, Darcy Robinson and Cam Ondrik at the trade deadline only made them better. They way they won games and closed teams out, it was just one of those teams that from top to bottom had depth and an incredible amount of talent and will.”

Colby Armstrong, who had 36 goals and 42 assists that season, jokingly asked, “What took them so long?” to get the team into the Hall.

“It’s amazing, thinking back to the city and how crazy it was at the time, and it’s cool that it’s here in Red Deer. It’s a huge honour for this group of guys,” the Lloydminster, SK native says.

“There were fans waiting for us when we came back from Portland [with the President’s Cup], and when we came back with the Memorial Cup. I don’t know if we knew quite what we’d done, but we loved each other, and it was the true meaning of a team. We also learned how to be pros under Brent [Sutter]. There’s no other way I’d want to go into the Hall than with these guys.”

During an induction speech, Brent Sutter, likely the biggest name fans would associate with the Red Deer Rebels, called Armstrong’s Game 2 OT winner vs. Calgary one of the biggest in franchise history.

Sutter bought the team in 1999, and guaranteed a Memorial Cup within three years. They did it in two, as legend goes.

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READ MORE: CHL.ca — Sutter’s bold prediction came true with 2001 Memorial Cup win

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“It was a unique group of players, and the staff too who set the standard for what we’re about as an organization. We’ve carried on with that culture ever since. These guys, I have nothing but great memories with them, I’m proud of them all, and it’s very well-deserved,” he told rdnewsNOW Friday.

“After we won, we were driving home on the bus, and there was a farmer putting the crop in just as we came out of Saskatchewan. He had a sign on top of the cab of his truck that said ‘Congratulations Red Deer Rebels.’ So from the Rockies to the eastern border, it was special.”

The Red Deer Rebels celebrate a goal during the 2001 Memorial Cup final against ValD-‘or. (Red Deer Archives/CTV Sportsnet)

Perhaps no one will have quite as unique a view of the win as Doug Lynch, who wore an ‘A’ that season, and went on to become captain for the following two before being traded to Spokane.

Lynch scored the clinching goal at 13:16 of overtime, the Rebels knocking off Val-D’or for the second time in the tournament, both games requiring the extra frame.

“I remember myself, Jeff Smith and Andrew Bergen were a line, and it was only our second or third shift of the period. Bergy got the puck in the corner, I came down low to support him, Bergy cycled it down low, I came up the half wall, and Jeff — he had a great long reach — was backdoor and had a step on the defender,” Lynch recalls fondly.

“I remember getting the puck around the half wall and I had some separation from the defender against me, [so] I fired a pass at Jeff at the backdoor. Obviously, the red light came on; I remember turning to the bench, and I got hammered by all the boys. I was at the bottom of the dog pile. I thought Jeff had tipped the puck in. It turned out the back-checker had put his stick in that lane and deflected it.”

On Saturday, during his speech, Sutter honoured Darcy Robinson, who tragically passed away after suffering a heart attack on the ice during a game in Italy. He was 26.

Sutter also acknowledged fellow inductee Kelly Kisio, who at the time of the Rebels’ Memorial Cup win, was GM of the Calgary Hitmen, Red Deer’s arch-nemesis. Kisio ad Sutter also played together for the Red Deer Rustlers once upon a time.

rdnewsNOW will have further coverage of this year’s Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame class in the coming days.

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