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5-1 Win

Rebels remain undefeated against Broncos this season

Mar 2, 2022 | 11:31 PM

The Red Deer Rebels are five for five against the Swift Current Broncos this season, with their latest win, a 5-1 triumph at the Innovation Credit Union i-plex Wednesday evening.

The victory also extends their current winning streak to six games.

The top two stars of Wednesday’s game went to none other than the power pairing of Ben King and Arshdeep Bains. King sits in first place for goals at 43 in the WHL this season, scoring two in Wednesdays’ game. He also claims first in power play goals with 20, including one Wednesday night. Bains, meanwhile, sits in first for assists with 51.

Still on a high from Tuesday’s win in Medicine Hat, the Rebels took that confidence into the first period against the Broncos. Dallon Melin scored his eighth goal of the season on goaltender Reid Dyck at 5:26, with Jace Isley making the assist, putting the team ahead 1-0 early.

At 16:49, Ben King tapped in his 42nd goal of the WHL season with the help of Hunter Mayo, making the score 2-0 Red Deer. The goal would later prove to be the game winner.

The Rebels lead was no surprise, however, given the fact they outshot the Broncos 19-2 in the first period.

In the second, the Broncos got on the board at 15:37 when Carter Stebbings scored on Rebels netminder Chase Coward for his sixth goal of the season. The score now 2-1, Josh Filmon and Owen Pickering made the assists.

It was a better period for the Broncos in terms of shots on goal as well, as Swift Current outshot the Rebels 9-8, for a two-period total of 27-11 in favour of Red Deer.

The Rebels responded early in the third though, with Arshdeep Bains scoring his 29th goal of the season at 1:01, with assists from Ben King and Jhett Larson to make it 3-1 Red Deer.

But a major fight broke out between the Broncos’ Eric Van Impe and the Rebels’ Jace Isley who received an extra two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct. Frantisek Formanek served that penalty for Red Deer, with Swift Current now having the man advantage.

Still, the Rebels’ Jayden Grubbe made the most of being the dark horse, scoring shorthanded at 8:48, with Christoffer Sedoff assisting on the play, extending Red Deer’s lead to 4-1.

Then once again with the man advantage with the Broncos’ Rayan Bettahar in the box for boarding, the Rebels capitalized. Ben King scored his second of the game and 43rd goal of the season. It came on the power play at 13:44 with Liam Keeler and Arshdeep Bains getting the assists, making it a 5-1 final.

Red Deer outshot Swift Current 12-6 in the final period, for a three-period total of 39-17 in favour of the Rebels.

On the power play, the Rebels went 1/6 while the Broncos went 0/3.

All three stars this game went to Red Deer with Christoffer Sedoff receiving the third star for his assist on the shorthanded goal and Arshdeep Bains given the second star for his one goal and one assist on the night. The first star went to Ben King for his two goals and one assist.

The win gives the Rebels a record of 35-15-2-1 with 73 points, while the Broncos drop to 20-27-5-2 with 47 points.

The Rebels will remain in Saskatchewan for their next game on Friday, Mar. 4 against the Regina Pats. Faceoff is 6 p.m. MT at the Brandt Centre with the broadcast live on 106.7 REWIND radio.