(Image Credit: Red Deer Rebels/Taylor Lachance)

By Ian Gustafson

Playoff race

Blades strike early, hand Rebels costly home defeat

Feb 20, 2026 | 10:08 PM

The Red Deer Rebels got put in a deep hole early and were unable to dig themselves out in a 5-2 loss to the Saskatoon Blades at home on Friday.

The Blades scored three straight goals before the midway point of the first period, and despite a slight push by the Rebels, they failed to overcome the steep deficit.

During the postgame interview, Rebels head coach Marc Habscheid quoted his late father, who he said told him if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say it at all.

“I don’t have much to say,” he said. “Blame it on me, I’m the coach. That was an egg and [it came at a] bad time. We don’t have a lot of games left; we’ve got to get points, and that was not what we wanted. I’ll take the blame for that one.”

The Blades struck first with a tally from Cooper Williams just over two and a half minutes into the contest, followed by a marker from Kazden Mathies 32 seconds later to lead 2-0.

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The Blades then extended their lead with 12:02 left in the opening frame off the stick of Jaggar John to take a commanding lead.

The Rebels finally got on the board with 3:38 to go in the first with a goal from forward Owen DeWitt, who tapped in the rebound following a shot from the blueline by defenceman Aleksey Chichkin.

DEWITT!!#RDREBELS #WHL https://t.co/naJawAGKpZ

— Red Deer Rebels (@Rebelshockey) February 21, 2026

In the second period, Saskatoon took a 4-1 lead with a one-timer in the slot from Elias Pul with 7:27 left.

However, 23 seconds later, the Rebels answered with a goal from their leading scorer, Beckett Hamilton, for his 20th of the season.

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW.

Beckett Hamilton 2⃣0⃣th 💣 of the season!👏@Rebelshockey | #NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/o7Od14emE9

— Western Hockey League (@TheWHL) February 21, 2026

In the third period, the Blades sealed the deal with 11:25 to go with a backdoor feed to Rowan Calvert on the power play.

Despite the loss, the Rebels remain in eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings since the Moose Jaw Warriors, who are one point behind the Rebels, also lost on Friday to the Prince Albert Raiders. The Regina Pats, however, are ahead of Red Deer by three points after defeating the Edmonton Oil Kings.

“We just weren’t good,” Habscheid admitted. “We didn’t start good, the middle frame was no good. We just weren’t any good.”

Next up, the Rebels will head to Calgary on Sunday for a matchup with the Hitmen at 2 p.m.

The Rebels were without Cole Temple, who is out week to week with an injury, and defenceman Cameron Dillard.

Forward Kohen Lodge missed Friday’s game after he was suspended two games for a boarding penalty against the Medicine Hat Tigers on Monday. He will be eligible to return to the lineup after Sunday’s contest in Calgary.

“We’ve got to bounce back,” Habscheid added. “We had a home game against a team that’s got some injuries, and this is a game we had to have and didn’t get it. Now we’ve got to get a game against a team above us in a tough place.”