By Troy Gillard (Twitter: @Troy_Gillard)

Rebels edge Blades for fourth straight win

Oct 2, 2018 | 10:30 PM

Frank Sinatra once sang, “Love is lovelier the second time around.”

We’re not sure if Jeff de Wit is a fan of Ol’ Blue Eyes, but he’s so far making the most of his second tour of duty with his hometown Red Deer Rebels.

The 20-year-old forward scored his fourth and fifth goals of the season Tuesday night to help lead the Rebels to an entertaining 5-4 win over the Saskatoon Blades.

“I felt good from puck drop, felt like my legs were there. Sure helps when (Hagel) is clicking like he is and (Zaytsev) is playing well as a 17-year-old, it’s awesome,” said de Wit.

“It’s fun playing with playing with two skilled players out there. Hags creates so much because he’s so skilled and guys have to stick to him. (It) gives me more space. Zayts is a heads up, smart player, so it’s been good.”

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Saskatoon opened the scoring 4:48 into the game when Eric Florchuk put home a rebound past Rebels goalie Ethan Anders.

Just seven seconds after Brandon Hagel was sent off for a questionable (at best) kneeing infraction, Josh Paterson scored at 10:55 to give the Blades a 2-0 lead.  

Chris Douglas pulled the Rebels within a goal at 11:41 when he snuck a wrist shot through the five hole of Blades goalie Nolan Maier.

At the 14:09 mark of period one, de Wit tipped in a Hagel point shot for a power play goal to make it 2-2.

But a mere 1:15 after that, Kristian Roykas-Marthinsen scored to send Saskatoon to the first intermission with a 3-2 lead.

de Wit tipped home another goal 1:23 into period two to tie the game for a second time.

Josh Tarzwell fed captain Reese Johnson who in turned fired home his third goal of the season to give Red Deer their first lead of the game 3:35 into the middle frame.

Oleg Zaytsev, capitalizing on a terrific spinning pass from Hagel, scored a power play goal into a mostly open Blades net at 10:48 for a 5-3 Rebels lead.

Saskatoon made it a one goal game again 5:09 into the third period. Rebels defenceman Hunter Donohoe coughed up a bad turnover allowing Riley McKay to snipe one top shelf on Anders. It ended up being the final goal of the game as the Rebels managed to hold on for the win.

“We played hard. We were very competitive. Unfortunately, we had some things go against us early that allowed them to go on the power play. Maybe that was a good thing because we responded right after,” said Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter.

“I was really happy with our effort, the way we played. We moved our feet and did a really good job in certain areas that we needed to be a little bit better in.”

Tuesday’s game was played before 3626 fans who braved a somewhat miserable night in central Alberta to be at the Enmax Centrium.

The three stars of the game were 1. de Wit 2. Kirby Dach and 3. Brandon Hagel.

The Rebels are back in action Saturday night when they host the Prince Albert Raiders. Game time is at 7 p.m. with the radio broadcast on 106.7 THE DRIVE starting at 6:30.