By Alessia Proietti

5-2 Win

Rebels beat Hurricanes in Friday night tilt

Jan 21, 2022 | 11:03 PM

A rough start to the week on Monday was all the Red Deer Rebels needed to light a fire Friday night en route to 5-2 win over the Hurricanes at the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge.

The Rebels started strong in the first period with Ben King scoring on goaltender Jared Picklyk at the 3:28 mark. Now a quarter of the way to King’s 100^th goal of the season, assists came from Jett Larson and Jackson van de Leest on the play.

King didn’t stop there, however. With the Hurricane’s Justin Hall sent to the box for hooking, King scored his 26^th goal of the season on the power play at 12:45, with assists coming from Kalan Lind and Jace Weir, making the score 2-0 Red Deer.

Although Lethbridge outshot Red Deer 11-8, they were unable to capitalize from the puck dominance.

Red Deer seized another power play opportunity at the start of the second period when Lethbridge’s Chase Pauls was called for tripping. The Rebels’ Liam Keeler scored his 14^th goal of the season at 2:51, the eventual game winner, with the help of Ben King and Arshdeep Bains to make the score 3-0 Red Deer.

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But Lethbridge began to resist just before the midway point of the period, with Alex Thacker scoring his sixth goal of the season on Rebels netminder Connor Ungar at 9:38. Finally on the scoreboard at 3-1, Justin Hall assisted on the goal.

Just over a minute later and on a roll, the Hurricanes’ Tristan Zandee scored his second goal of the season at 10:46, with the help of Hayden Smith and Brayden Edwards, bringing the score to 4-2 in favour of the Rebels.

Then with the Hurricanes Joe Arntsen in the box for tripping, the Rebels Jackson van de Leest scored also his second goal this season to make it 5-2. It came on the power play at 16:45 with assists coming from Jhett Larson and Frantisek Formanek, his first assist for a Canadian team since playing for the Czech Republic professional league.

After another 20 minutes of play, the Rebels this time were the leaders in shots on goal at 14-10.

The third period was a tight one, however, forcing the Hurricanes to eventually pull goalie Jared Picklyk in an attempt to bring them within one goal of Red Deer.

The Rebels’ Dallon Melin instead took advantage of the empty net less than two minutes before the final buzzer, scoring his fourth goal this season to make it 5-2 Red Deer. Jace Isley assisted on the play.

Shots on goal were 6-6 in the third period, for a three period total of 28-27 in favour of Red Deer.

Penalties proved costly for Lethbridge as the Rebels went 3/6 on the power play, while the Hurricanes went 0/4 with the man advantage.

The third star of the game went to Lethbridge’s Brayden Edwards, while the final two stars went to the Rebels netminder Connor Ungar receiving the second star, and Ben King receiving the game’s first star for his two goals and one assist on the night.

The win maintains Red Deer’s second place standing in the WHL’s Central Division with a record of 24-11-2-1, while the loss for Lethbridge keeps them in fifth place in the Central at 14-15-2-1.

The Rebels return to home ice at the Peavey Mart Centrium Saturday night against the Moose Jaw Warriors. Puck drop is 7 p.m.