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(Photo: Red Deer Rebels/Rob Wallator)
outmatched

Rebels lose sixth straight to Edmonton

Apr 5, 2021 | 10:07 PM

There’s no doubt that the Red Deer Rebels are glad to be done with the Edmonton Oil Kings this season.

The Rebels took on the Oil Kings for the sixth game in a row Monday night and suffered their sixth straight loss, 6-1 at the Westerner Park Centrium.

Red Deer fell to 2-9-2-0 on the year while Edmonton improved to 12-1-0-0.

“It’s just not about wins and losses. It’s about how you lose. I’ve said this a thousand times over and I’ve been in the game a long time, you never learn how to win until you hate to lose,” Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter said bluntly.

“If you’re willing to lose easy, it’s tough to begin to hate to lose and that means you have no chance of winning. We need to get the guys to push themselves through– when you get to the point where you hate to lose, you’ll do whatever you need to do to sacrifice to win. We just haven’t had enough of that sacrifice.”

Kaid Oliver opened the scoring for Edmonton 5:29 into the first period when he found the puck in scramble near the crease and lifted it past Rebels goalie Ethan Anders for his seventh goal of the year.

Dylan Guenther, the WHL’s player of the month, struck for a pair of goals 1:23 seconds apart late in the period to send the Oil Kings to the intermission with a 3-1 lead. Edmonton outshot Red Deer 20-1 in the opening 20 minutes.

“It was the worst period of the season, we didn’t have any jump or emotion in our game at all,” Sutter said.

The second period was much more evenly played and saw the Rebels generate a handful of good scoring chances before finally putting one past Oil Kings netminder Sebastian Cossa. Arshdeep Bains ripped home a wrister from the top of the face-off circle for his fourth goal of the year, a powerplay tally at the 16:52 mark.

Edmonton restored their three-goal lead not long after, however, as Jaylen Luypen fired a laser past Anders for his ninth goal of the year at 19:02.

The Oil Kings added two more goals in the third period as Luypen, at the 1:45-mark, and Oliver at 6:04 each recorded their second tallies of the night.

Edmonton outshot Red Deer 36-21 on the night and was 0-for-4 on the powerplay while the Rebels were 1-for4.

“At the end of the day, you kind of get what you deserve. In the game of hockey, there’s a reason why they have three periods. To win a game of hockey you’ve got to be competitive in all three periods,” said Sutter.

The Oil Kings outscored the Rebels 33-7 in their season series.

The Rebels were missing three defenceman for this game due to injury – Blake Gustafson, Chase Leslie and Hunter Mayo – leaving forward Ben King to help fill the defence corps.

Leading goal scorer Josh Tarzwell also missed the game for Red Deer with an injury. His status is considered to be ‘day-to-day.’

The Rebels are back in action Friday night at the Westerner Park Centrium versus the Calgary Hitmen. Game time on 106.7 REWIND Radio is 7 p.m.