By Kael Clark

winning wednesday

Rebels harvest 5-4 win over red hot Wheat Kings

Jan 29, 2020 | 11:35 PM

The Red Deer Rebels had a wild clash with the Brandon Wheat Kings on Wednesday night at the Westerner Park Centrium that ended with the home side pulling out a 5-4 victory.

“I thought it was a back and forth game and we played well for most of it. A few downs and they capitalized but in the end we got the W and that’s all that matters,” said Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter.

The Rebels opened the scoring when Chris Douglas entered the zone with a nice play off the boards and ripped the puck far side that beat Brandon goalie Jiri Patera for a 1-0 lead. For Douglas it was his 10th goal of the season.

After Red Deer took an instigating penalty, the Wheat Kings tied things up on the powerplay. Ridley Greig let a shot go from top of the right faceoff circle in Red Deer’s end and the puck pinballed its way past Rebels goalie Ethan Anders and in for a 1-1 game.

The Rebels regained the lead three quarters of the way into the first period on a beautiful cross-crease play off the rush. Jace Isley chipped the puck over the stick of a Wheat Kings defender right onto the stick of Dallon Melin, who tapped it past Patera for his sixth goal of the season.

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Rebels forward Zak Smith took a five minute boarding major and game misconduct early in the second period that left Red Deer short a man for the remainder of the game.

Red Deer added to their lead five minutes into the second period while down a man. when Arshdeep Bains rushed the puck down the ice, slid it to Ben King and when everyone thought he would shoot it, King threw a backhand saucer back to Bains, leaving him with an open cage to pot his 16th goal pf the year.

The Wheat Kings cut the Rebels lead in half about 10 minutes later. Brandon forward Ridley Greig won the draw, putting the puck on the stick of forward Ben McCartney where he dashed through the Rebels defense and outwaited Anders throwing the puck over him on a beautiful move for his 19th goal of the year.

Early in the third period, the Wheat Kings tied it up when defenseman Chad Nychuk intercepted a pass meant for King and passed it up to Brandon’s leading goal scorer, Luka Burzan, who fired a laser from the top of the circle that went off of the crossbar and in for his 27^th goal of the season. Just like that the game was 3-3.

Just under half of the final frame was left to be played when Red Deer regained the lead on another beautiful play. Strong on the forecheck, Bains was working hard down low in the Wheat Kings zone and with Christoffer Sedoff sneaking in, Bains circled around behind the net with a nice no-look backhand pass out in the slot for a one-timer from Sedoff that beat Patera high glove side for his 4^th goal of the season. Rebels lead 4-3.

Loads of pressure from Brandon late in the 3^rd period paid off for them as Cole Reinhardt picked the high glove corner on Anders to tie it late at 4-4.

Thirty three seconds later, King put his dangles on display past Reinhardt and to the net where he finished a gorgeous goal past Patera that ended up the game winner.

Anders made 32 saves in Red Deer’s victory, while Patera stopped 29 shots out of 34 he saw for Brandon. Red Deer was shut down on all four of their powerplays while Brandon was succesful on 2-of-6 man advantages.

The next home game for Red Deer will be this Friday night versus former Rebels captain Dawson Barteaux and the Winnipeg Ice at 7 p.m. You can catch the game live on 106.7 THE DRIVE starting at 6:30.