Rebels drop home opener to Oil Kings

Oil Kings captain Trey Fix-Wolansky opened the scoring with his first goal of the season at the 7:09 mark of the opening period.

The Rebels replied just over seven minutes later at 14:31 whole on the power play. Alexander Alexeyev fired a shot from the top of the circle that rang off the post and bounced twice off of Edmonton goalie Dylan Myskiw and trickled across the goal line. Dawson Barteaux and Jeff de Wit earned the assists on Alexeyev’s second goal of the season.

Vince Loschiavo gave Edmonton a 2-1 lead 4:11 into period as he tucked one past Rebels goalie Ethan Anders for his third goal of the weekend.

David Kope showed some nice hand-eye coordination, knocking the puck out of mid-air with his glove and onto his stick before tapping home the 3-1 goal for Edmonton with 4:19 remaining. Scott Atkinson added a long distance empty net goal with seven seconds left to play.

The Rebels were 1-for-4 on the power play while holding the Oil Kings to 0-for-5. Edmonton outshot Red Deer 35-29.

“I said at the start of the year we are going to have a young team and we’re going to have some growing pains through this,” Sutter added during his post-game remarks.

“(Edmonton) have six (WHL) first round draft picks on their team and some high picks. They have a pretty darn good hockey team. They have great speed and play the game quick.

“I thought our pace was better than the last game. We moved our feet a lot better and our puck movement was better. We just have to continue to work.”

The Rebels are back in action Friday, Sept. 28 when the Calgary Hitmen pay their first visit of the season to the Enmax Centrium. Game time is at 7 p.m.

by Troy Gillard (Twitter: @Troy_Gillard)

Rebels drop home opener to Oil Kings

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