Red Deer Rebels forward Carson Birnie battles against Moose Jaw Warriors centre Harper Lolacher on Wednesday night at the Peavey Mart Centrium. (Red Deer Rebels/Rob Wallator)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

TWO-GAME LOSING STREAK OVER

Rebels’ Uchacz adds to WHL goal lead in shootout win over Moose Jaw

Jan 11, 2023 | 9:59 PM

En route to a 4-3 shootout win, the Red Deer Rebels gave up three one-goal leads to the Moose Jaw Warriors Wednesday night.

The teams had met three prior times this season, Red Deer winning 4-2 on on the road Oct. 14, the Rebels winning 4-2 again away on Nov. 5, and then the Warriors took the third matchup 5-2 in Red Deer on Dec. 3.

Coming in, Red Deer was 26-8-1-3, atop the Central Division, while Moose Jaw was 24-14-0-1, third in the East Division.

Scoring summary

The goals started with three seconds left in the first, Red Deer’s Kai Uchacz (34th) adding to his WHL-leading total.

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There were no goals in the second period.

In the third, Jagger Firkus (22nd) scored 33 seconds in on the power play to tie things at 1-1.

2:22 later, Frantisek Formanek (8th) put the Rebels back in the lead.

Atley Calvert (23rd), however, had something to say about that, potting the equalizer at 11:09.

Red Deer would take the lead once again at 12:41 of the third as Kalan Lind (10th) scored a power play marker.

But Ryder Korczak (15th) would tie things up once more with a man advantage goal with just 1:16 left in regulation time.

There was nothing doing in overtime, and the teams headed to the shootout.

Kai Uchacz shot first, scoring what was the only goal on six shot attempts in the shootout, and the Rebels won 4-3.

Rhett Stoesser (14-4-0-0) stopped all three shots, giving him his first WHL shootout win, and the Rebels their first win in four shootout tries this season.

“I’m happy with our guys; start to finish, they played a really solid game. Maybe another bounce or two and it’s not quite as tight,” Head Coach Steve Konowalchuk remarked post-game. “We had to make sure we were mentally strong and didn’t get away from how we started. The guys didn’t hang their heads.

“There were rebounds we didn’t get to,” Konowalchuk added. “We hit a cross bar and they got some big saves. You have to expect against good hockey teams, and a lot of teams, that you’ll have to win it late.”

D-man Nicholas Andrusiak, whom the Rebels picked up at the WHL Trade Deadline on Jan. 10, had one shot and an even +/- in his Red Deer debut.

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Shots

MJ: 30

RD: 50

Power play

MJ: 2/3

RD: 1/3

THREE STARS

1st: Kalan Lind (RD) – 1G, 2A

2nd: Jagger Firkus (MJ) – 1G, 1A

3rd: Christoffer Sedoff (RD) – 1A, 4SH

Next up for Red Deer is their ninth and final meeting of the season with the Edmonton Oil Kings, this Friday, Jan. 13 at the Peavey Mart Centrium. The season series has been all Red Deer, quite literally, as the Rebels have won each of the eight games so far, outscoring their QEII opponents 43-15.

Puck drop is at 7 p.m. with the pre-game live on 106.7 REWIND Radio starting at 6:30.