(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Ian Gustafson

Eighth straight loss

Tigers blow out Rebels 8-1 on the road

Jan 10, 2025 | 9:43 PM

The Red Deer Rebels have now lost eight-straight games following an 8-1 defeat to the Medicine Hat Tigers on Friday night.

Forward Marcus Pacheco led the way offensively at Co-op Place in Medicine Hat with three goals and Gavin McKenna added three assists.

Meanwhile, the Rebels lone goal scorer was Nolan Schmidt, who scored his first-ever WHL goal.

Red Deer was outshot 42-13 by Medicine Hat but a silver lining for the Rebels was they held the Tigers scoreless on four powerplay attempts.

The Tigers took their first lead of the game with 6:31 left in the opening period off the stick of Bryce Pickford and assisted by Ryder Ritchie.

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Less than a minute later, defenceman Tanner Molendyk scored his first as a member of the Tigers since he was traded from Saskatoon earlier in the week. The veteran rearguard walked in from the blue line and hammered in a slap shot from the left circle past Wutzke.

With 1:13 left to go in the first period, Kalan Lind was hit from behind into the boards by Tigers Niilopekka Muhonen, but was only handed a two-minute minor penalty.

This resulted in some pushing and shoving which lead to a cross checking penalty for Red Deer’s Ty Coupland. Fans also nearly witnessed a goalie fight between Chase Wutzke and Harrison Meneghin but the officials stopped it from happening even though both took off their helmets and gloves. Instead, they were both handed penalties for leaving their nets.

Lind did not return to the game and neither did forward Matthew Gard, who also left with an apparent upper-body injury.

In the second period, the Rebels got on the board just 1:37 into the period when Schmidt tapped in a shot past Meneghin.

Despite that, the Tigers took a 4-1 lead after Marcus Pacheco scored back-to-back goals near the midway point of the period.

His first came while the Tigers were killing a powerplay and was sprung on a breakaway before capitalizing on the opportunity.

Two and a half minutes later, he scored on a one-timer in front of the net for his fifth of the season off the pass from Gavin McKenna nearly 10 minutes through the middle frame.

With a minute left before the intermission, the Tigers extended their after Hunter St. Martin knocked the puck out of the air off a shot from Jonas Woo to lead 5-1.

Rookie goaltender Matthew Kondro started the third period for the Rebels after Wutzke gave up five goals on 24 shots. Kondro finished the game with 15 saves on 18 shots.

Tigers forward Ethan Neutens gave the home team a 6-1 lead off a laser shot from the slot nearly two and a half minutes into the third.

Forward Oasiz Wiesblatt added one more on the board for the Tigers who knocked in his 18th of the year after a failed scoring attempt by Ryder Ritchie.

Pacheco completed the hat trick with 52 seconds left in the game after another shorthanded goal for the Tigers.

Red Deer will return to action on Saturday at 7 p.m. when they take on the Prince Albert Raiders at the Peavey Mart Centrium.

You can listen to all Rebels games on 106.7 Rewind Radio.