Back and forth battle won by Red Deer
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Rebels earn first win of season, 3-2 in OT over Calgary
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It took them a few extra minutes to get it done but the Red Deer Rebels finally have their first win of the season.
Arshdeep Bains scored with 54 seconds left in overtime as the Rebels came from behind to defeat the Calgary Hitmen 3-2 Saturday night at the Westerner Park Centrium.
The Rebels bounced back from Friday’s loss at Calgary to improve to 1-2-1 while the Hitmen fell to 1-0-1.
Neither team scored in the first period, though the Rebels dominated play in the opening frame and outshot Calgary 15-5.
“I thought the first period was as good a period as we’ve had since we started here (this season),” Rebels GM/Head Coach Brent Sutter said after the game. “We played extremely well in that first period.”
The Hitmen flipped the scales in the second period and surged ahead with a pair of goals. Tristan Zandee picked up a rebound off the end boards and beat Rebels goalie Ethan Anders for his first WHL goal at the 7:16 mark. Sean Tschigerl scored his second goal in as many nights when he corralled a loose puck and tucked it home at 16:04.
But the Rebels flipped the momentum again late in the period, with just two seconds remaining, as Chris Douglas took a pass from Mason Ward and ripped home a power play one-timer past Hitmen netminder Jack McNaughton to make it a 2-1 game.
“In the second period we stopped moving our feet and took some penalties which got us out of our rhythm. They (Hitmen) were obviously better in the second than in the first,” Sutter noted.
“In the third we got back to playing like we can play and got a break on the second goal to tie it up.”
It was a back and forth affair for much of the third period with the two teams trading Grade-A scoring chances. Both teams even rang the puck off the post a couple times while Anders and McNaughton took turns making save after save.
Late in the frame, with the Rebels at the end of a long shift and needing a line change, Kyle Masters fired a long shot from inside his own blue line on the Calgary net. McNaughton made the save but coughed up a big rebound that Ben King pounced on for the game tying goal. King’s first goal of the year with 2:54 left to play set the stage for overtime.
Red Deer dominated the 3-on-3 extra frame despite Calgary winning multiple face-offs. Persistent pressure by the Rebels eventually paid off with 54 seconds left to play as Bains capped off a hard working 2-on-1 with a top shelf backhander that a diving McNaughton couldn’t get to.
“Les (Chase Leslie) brought it up the ice, Bainsy got on it and I saw a two-on-one. Bainsy fed it over, I couldn’t get a clear shot so I just tried to give it back to him,” King said in describing the play. “He made a good play to stop it and put it in the net. It was just a good two-on-one play and luckily we got away with it.”
Leslie finished with two assists in what was his 100th career WHL game.
“It’s always nice to win and to come back like that to win is even bigger. The kids are practicing hard, they’re making a commitment here to get better. All the teams have lots of time to work in practice to develop and get better,” said Sutter.
“But there’s nothing like competing in a game and it’s nice to get the victory for sure.”
Centre Kalan Lind, the sixth overall pick by the Rebels at the 2020 WHL Draft, made his Rebels debut in the game. Sutter felt the now-16-year-old handled himself well.
“You can tell there is a game in him, right. He’s got some tools, but he is a competitor and he is fiery, but he is a very skilled player, and he is going to be a very good player in this league.”
Shots on goal in the game finished even at 34-34. Red Deer was 1-for-6 on the power play while Calgary was 0-for-4.
Next up for the Rebels is the first of three straight games versus the Lethbridge Hurricanes Friday, March 12 at the Westerner Park Centrium at 7 p.m.
