(Taylor Lachance/ Red Deer Rebels)

By Ian Gustafson

4-2 win

Wilke scores on annual Toque and Teddy Bear Toss night in victory over Blazers

Dec 14, 2024 | 10:27 PM

It’s the goal that everyone wants to score but only one gets the privilege of doing so.

In the Rebels annual Toque and Teddy Bear Toss game on Saturday night, forward Kalan Lind found Trae Wilke on the doorstep off a feed from the left circle nearly three minutes into the second period.

With 4,725 fans in the building, their second biggest home crowd of the 2024-25 campaign, thousands of teddy bears and other winter clothing items rained down on the ice in benefit of the Red Deer Christmas Bureau.

The goal broke the scoreless tie to give Red Deer a 1-0 lead and the goal marked Wilke’s fifth of the season. It also propelled the Rebels to a 4-2 victory over the visiting Kamloops Blazers.

“It’s pretty cool,” Wilke said postgame. “The bears came down and obviously I haven’t scored a goal like that in my career yet… It was great for me to keep on rolling.”

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Wilke explained the team played a full 60 minutes which was much needed after a 4-1 loss to the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Friday night.

“These fans come out to watch and they want some excitement,” Wilke added. “It was a big night with the teddy bear toss so it was good to give them a bit of a show and get a win.”

Rebels head coach Dave Struch seconded his comments and said it’s important for the players to feed off the crowd.

“We need these wins. You can see how tight the race is in the conference. Every game means something… and it was nice to do it for our fans,” Struch said.

“Those are big energy givers and the whole group fed off of it. When you get the fans into it early in the game and it was a good game… It was for a good cause and the amount of fans that were here that got involved in the win, they were a big part of the win.”

With 13:44 left in the frame, the Rebels extended their lead when Cohen Poulin beat the goaltender in front of the net. Forward Nolan Schmidt, who got the secondary assist on the play, recorded his first WHL point. Schmidt passed it to Cole Peardon, who delivered a touch pass to Poulin in the slot.

The Blazers got on the board 11:38 to go in the second. After the initial shot by Tommy Lafreniere in the slot, Blazers defenceman Ryan Michael hopped on the loose puck in the crease.

However, the Rebels put the game away in the third period.

Red Deer took a 3-1 lead 10 seconds into the period scored by Talon Brigley who knocked in the puck in front of the net following a pass from Jaxon Fuder.

Nearly five minutes later, deep in their own defensive end, Jace Weir connected with Matthew Gard on a long pass that landed on the forwards stick at the blue line.

He skated in on a breakaway and beat goaltender Logan Edmonstone.

The Blazers went down fighting as they scored with 42 seconds left to come within two goals. Despite the push, the Rebels held on to snap a three-game losing skid.

Rebels goaltender Chase Wutzke had another impressive performance in net making 33 saves on 35 shots. He was named the first star just 24 hours after he was the third star on Friday night.

“He’s been fantastic there’s no question,” Struch said. “He gives us a chance to win every night. We do know that we struggle scoring so we need him to be at his best. Tonight we did some really good things that gave us opportunities to score. We beared down on those chances.”

The Rebels dressed a young lineup on Saturday since they’re without several key players including captain Ollie Josephson, Kasper Pikkarainen, Jhett Larson, and Samuel Drancak.

Next up, the Rebels will host the Swift Current Broncos on Tuesday at the Centrium at 7 p.m. before heading out on Christmas break.