By Troy Gillard (Twitter: @Troy_Gillard)

Rebels swept from playoffs by Raiders

Mar 27, 2019 | 10:11 PM

The Red Deer Rebels season has come to an end.

The Rebels fell 4-1 on Wednesday night at the Westerner Park Centrium to the Prince Albert Raiders, who swept the WHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series 4-0.

Red Deer came into the series as heavy underdogs against the top-ranked Raiders, and in the end were simply outmatched by the powerhouse Prince Albert squad.

“There’s no consolation in losing,” Rebels GM/head coach lamented after the game. “It’s obviously a very good team we were playing. I would certainly have liked a better matchup in the first round if we had been a bit better hockey team from Christmas on, but that wasn’t the case.”

For the first time in the series, the Rebels opened the scoring with 9.7 seconds left in the opening period one. The Raiders zeroed in on Brandon Hagel with the puck near the net allowing the Chicago Blackhawks prospect to feed Jeff de Wit for his first goal of the series.

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The lead held up until midway through the second period when Ozzy Weisblatt tied the game for Prince Albert. After the Rebels were denied a late line change, Weisblatt found a loose puck following the ensuing face-off and beat Rebels goalie Ethan Anders for his first goal of the playoffs.

Prince Albert took the lead 58 seconds into period three as Brett Leason, back from serving his one game suspension, poked home his opening goal of the playoffs.

With Hagel in the penalty box for plowing over Raiders goalie Ian Scott, Leason put the dagger into the heart of the Rebels by scoring a power play goal at the 11:27 mark.

Cole Fonstad tapped home an empty net goal with 3:34 left to play to put the wraps on the game, the series and the Rebels’ season.

Prince Albert outshot Red Deer 35-22 on the night and was 1-for-2 on the power play while the Rebels were 0-for-2.

“I thought we played (well) in one game in this series, and that was game two in P.A. where we played a real good 60 minutes,” Sutter said. “Last night we weren’t very good at all and tonight for two periods we were there. But the third period, you know, three goals against kind of summed up what we were as a team from Christmas on, the type of mistakes we make.”

Sutter went on to say how proud he was of his three 20-year-old players: Jeff de Wit, Reese Johnson and Brandon Hagel.

“They’ve been warriors for us throughout the whole year, great leaders, all three of them.

“When you think back from the start of the season to where we’re at today you could say all three of them had great years in their own right.”

It’s expected both Hagel and Johnson, signed during the season by the Chicago Blackhawks, will soon report to the Rockford IceHogs, Chicago’s American Hockey League affiliate, while de Wit will look to play USports hockey at a Canadian university next season.

This is the first time the Rebels have been swept in a playoff series since 2010 at the hands of the Saskatoon Blades.