(Red Deer Rebels/Taylor Lachance)

By Ian Gustafson

Heartbreaker

Winterhawks score late to edge Rebels at Centrium

Oct 17, 2025 | 10:22 PM

The Red Deer Rebels lost a heartbreaker on Friday night.

With 27.2 seconds left in the game, the Portland Winterhawks scored to take a 2-1 lead with an extra attacker on the ice following a delayed penalty.

Shortly after, the Winterhawks added an empty-netter to defeat the Rebels 3-1 at the Centrium.

Head coach Marc Habscheid said his team probably got what it deserved.

“Discipline in all areas in terms of our game, in terms of a lot of things, and the penalties. It wasn’t what I was looking for,” he said. “You’ve got to start out of the gates and we didn’t. We took some bad penalties. I think we were shorthanded for the first half of the game for almost half of the game. You’re not going to win like that.”

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In total, the Rebels had 32 minutes in penalties including a 10-minute game misconduct by Derek Thurston. Thirty minutes of that came before the end of the second period.

“Tomorrow is another day,” Habscheid added. “We’ve got to learn from this for sure. Some of what happened tonight is inexcusable… It’s not acceptable.”

The Winterhawks opened the scoring with 5:44 left in the opening period off a one-timer from Nathan Brown from the bottom of the right circle. Forward Jordan Duguay completed the pass from the left circle with two Rebels defenders on him while heading toward the net.

Red Deer nearly found the equalizer in the dying seconds of the first period but were unable to convert. While on the penalty kill, forward Nolan Schmidt gathered the puck in the offensive zone after Red Deer cleared the puck. He fed Arjun Bawa in the slot, who fired a shot and followed for the rebound opportunity that trickled through the goalie’s pads. However, a Winterhawks defender saved the goal by stopping the puck on the goal line with his stick.

In the second period, the Rebels found the tying goal with 8.2 seconds left.

After a scramble in front of the net that featured multiple scoring chances, the loose puck came out to forward Landon MacSwain, who spun around and fired it in from the slot for his second of the season.

The third period featured some stellar goaltending play before the Winterhawks delivered the knockout punch.

Portland netminder Ondrej Štěbeták made 30 saves on 31 shots; meanwhile, Rebels goaltender Chase Wutzke was equally as impressive with 25 saves of his own.

Habscheid said if it wasn’t for Wutzke, the score could have been a lot different. Also, rookie forward Rhett Ewen made his WHL debut as an affiliated player. Normally, he suits up for the Flin Flon Bombers of the Saskatchewan Junior A Hockey League.

The Rebels will look to return to the win column tomorrow night in front of the home crowd at the Centrium against the Spokane Chiefs. Puck drop is at 6 p.m.

Good news for Rebels fans is that Matthew Gard will be eligible to return after serving a two-game suspension.

Habscheid said he’s looking for his team to bounce back after falling to 10th place in the Eastern Conference with a 2-7 record.

“There are things we’ve got to get better at… I didn’t like tonight one bit.”