By Troy Gillard (Twitter: @Troy_Gillard)

Rebels come up short versus T-Birds, visit Portland tonight

Feb 16, 2019 | 9:10 AM

A spirited third period comeback came up short for the Red Deer Rebels as they fell 6-4 to the Seattle Thunderbirds in Kent, Washington Friday night.

For the Rebels it was their second game in as many nights and the third of their five-game swing through the WHL U.S. Division. They are back in action tonight when they visit the Portland Winterhawks (8 p.m. on 106.7 THE DRIVE).

Noah Philp opened the scoring Friday night for Seattle 7:45 into period one before Zak Smith tied it for the Rebels 37 seconds later with his 10th goal of the season.

Seattle dominated the second period, scoring four times on tallies from Matthew Wedman, Adrej Kukuca and a pair from Henrik Rybinski.

Red Deer made a game of it in the third period starting with Alexander Alexeyev’s eighth goal of the year at the 3:30 mark.

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Just 33 seconds later Oleg Zaytsev netted his eleventh.

Captain Reese Johnson scores his 21st goal of the year with 1:26 left to play to make it a one goal game. But Wedman sealed the win for Seattle with an empty net goal with 58 seconds remaining.

Byron Fancy got the call in net for Red Deer and turned aside 38 of the 43 shots he faced. Seattle goalie Roddy Ross earned the win with 26 saves on 30 shots on goal.

Seattle was 1-for-5 on the power play while Red Deer was held to 0-for-3.

Rebels forward and Red Deer native Jeff de Wit reached a milestone Friday night by playing in his 300th WHL regular season game.

The Rebels enter Saturday’s game in Portland tied with Calgary with 63 points on the season. The two teams currently hold down the two wildcard playoff spots in the WHL Eastern Conference and are six points up on the Brandon Wheat Kings. Red Deer and Calgary are four points back of Medicine Hat for third place in the Central Division.