By Troy Gillard (Twitter: @Troy_Gillard)

Rebels hang on to hand Raiders first loss

Oct 6, 2018 | 11:35 PM

The Red Deer Rebels won their fifth straight game Saturday night while handing the Prince Albert Raiders their first loss of the season.

Ethan Anders made 49 saves to backstop the Rebels to an exciting 4-3 victory at the Enmax Centrium.

They were certainly outplayed at times, but the Rebels found a way to earn another two points in the standings.

“You have to win ugly sometimes,” Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter said afterward. “They obviously have a very good hockey team, they’re an older team.

“But our young team battled and we found a way. I don’t know another way to put it.”

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Aliaksei Protas opened the scoring for Prince Albert with 11.6 seconds left in the first period.

Brandon Hagel tied the game 1-1 for the Rebels 2:20 into period two as he netted his fourth goal of the season from a nice saucer pass from Jeff de Wit.

Arshdeep Bains gave the Rebels their first lead of the game 42 seconds into period three when he fired a sharp angle shot past Raiders goalie Ian Scott.

A couple minutes later, Hunter Donohoe fired a point shot off the end boards and Chris Douglas corralled the rebound to put home his first goal of the season giving the Rebels a 3-1 lead.

The Raiders struck with a pair of goals 15 seconds apart from Sergei Sapego and Brett Leason, to tie the game 3-3 and stun the 4035 fans at the Enmax Centrium.

But when they needed a big play to lift them over the top, the Rebels got one from their captain. Reese Johnson drove around a Raiders defender and outwaited Scott before sliding home a spectacular goal with 2:16 remaining that stood up as the game winner.

“Whenever that happens us leaders on the bench have to do our best and keep everyone calm,” said Johnson about the two quick Raiders goals. “It was still a tie game, there was nothing to panic about. We were just happy to get up and win the game.”

Johnson was quick to heap praise on Anders, who by far was the game’s first star.

“I had to go up and congratulate him on a couple unreal saves. That penalty kill one, I let it through my seam and he backed me up with an unreal glove save. I think that will be making some highlight reels. He played awesome.”

“Credit to the kids, they didn’t give up, they stayed with it,” said Sutter. “Again, every day is like a new day for us, like a learning day, especially with all these young players. Hopefully they learned something from tonight’s game.”

Prince Albert outshot Red Deer 52-21 on the night. The Raiders were unable to score on the game’s lone power play in the second period.

The Rebels head east for a pair of games next weekend, Friday in Saskatoon and Saturday in Prince Albert.