Rebels reeling
CALGARY — The Red Deer Rebels weren’t rewarded for their solid first-period effort Sunday, in fact the visitors were actually on the short end of a 2-0 count despite holding a 10-3 advantage in shots at the Saddledome.
And from there, it was all gloom and doom for the visiting Rebels, who were bombed 8-1 by the Calgary Hitmen in the final regular-season game for both teams in front of 14,335 patrons.
While Hitmen No. 2 netminder Michael Snider turned aside every shot he faced in the opening 20 minutes, Rebels starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper struggled, surrendering goals to defencemen Michael Stone, on the power play, and Ben Wilson while making one solitary save.
“We played a very good first period. We came out and had a really good road period with some good (scoring) opportunities,” said Rebels head coach Jesse Wallin. “They (Hitmen) had three shots on goal and two of them went in.”
Joel Broda staked the Hitmen to a 3-0 lead following a Rebels turnover just 57 seconds into the middle frame, and then sniped his 39th of the season seven minutes later with Red Deer’s Turner Elson serving a roughing minor.
“We backed in during our power play on their fourth goal. They came up the middle and we got into retreat mode,” said Wallin. “If you give them (Hitmen) space they take advantage of it. All of a sudden we were down four and we just didn’t get a whole lot going after that.”
Del Cowan, Kris Foucault and Justin Kirsch upped the count to 7-0 in the second period before Brett Ferguson ruined Snider’s shutout bid with his 15th of the season late in the frame. Foucault rounded out the scoring with his 22nd of the season at 6:36 of the third period.
Kuemper allowed five goals on 13 shots before being replaced by Kraymer Barnstable, who stopped 10 of 13 shots. Snider made 22 saves for his fifth win of the season.
Wallin was in his Centrium office Sunday night reviewing video, and insisted he’s confident the Rebels — with just one regulation-time win in their last 11 games — will be well-prepared to face the Saskatoon Blades in an Eastern Conference quarter-final starting Saturday at Saskatoon.
“Obviously there are some areas we have to get better at, but we have a week to get ready,” said Wallin. “We just have to get that competitive and winning mentality back. We played a lot of hockey down the stretch and came through a lot of big games. I’m not going to say we were complacent after clinching a playoff berth, but we might have let our foot off the gas a bit. It’s a situation that most of our guys haven’t been in before.”
While Wallin wasn’t using fatigue as an alibi, the Rebels had to be tired after completing their third 24-game segment of the season. The Rebels played their first 24 games in a span of 67 days, their second 24 in 68 days and their final third of the season in only 47 days.
l The second game of the Rebels/Blades quarter-final will go Sunday at Saskatoon, with Games 3 and 4 set for the Centrium the following Wednesday and Thursday.
l Calgary forward Brandon Kozun collected four assists in Sunday’s win to capture the WHL scoring title with 107 points (32g,75a), one more than Regina’s Jordan Eberle (50-56), who played eight fewer games.
gmeachem@reddeeradvocate.com
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