Rebels 2
Hurricanes 3
The Red Deer Rebels held the lead for the majority of the game but fell in overtime 3-2 against the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Saturday night.
Late in the third period, the Hurricanes tied the game with two minutes to go when Miguel Marques banked in a shot off the back of Rebels netminder Rhett Stoesser.
In overtime, both teams had plenty of chances on the offensive end but Hurricanes defenceman Noah Chadwick scored to secure the victory.
Despite the loss, interim head coach Dave Struch called it their best game of the season since he’s been here.
“In the last two weeks, I think everything we’ve worked on in practice and everything we’ve learned from the games that we’ve played the guys have stayed consistent,” he said.
“I thought tonight was a big step forward even in a losing cause. There are some good things we can take away from it and some things we can work on. Overall, I thought the effort was fantastic.”
The Rebels were shorthanded with five players out of the lineup.
Defenceman Elias Carmichael, defenceman Quentin Bourne, forward Frantisek Formanek, and forward Carson Latimer are all out week to week with injuries. Defenceman Matteo Fabrizi also missed Saturday’s game after leaving Friday nights game in Lethbridge.
As a result, the Rebels had forward Evan Smith playing defence with other Rebels players filling in a defensive role on occasion.
“There’s no excuses and that’s why we’re going to give our guys a lot of credit for the effort that they put in and the way that we played,” Struch added.
“There were some breakdowns but those are things that I felt we recovered for the most part. They took advantage of some opportunities and scored some goals. We had a lot of opportunities that we missed on.
“Their goalie was good tonight but again no matter what the lineup is there’s no excuse. You win some you lose some… How you act or react to it is going to be really important. We’ve got to get ourselves ready for this week.”
After a scoreless first period, the Rebels took the lead nearly seven and a half minutes into the second period.
Forward Samuel Drancak notched his 11th of the season knocking in the rebound in front of Hurricanes goaltender Brady Smith.
Just over a minute later the Hurricanes found the equalizer. On the offensive rush, defenceman Will Sharpe fired a shot that went off the right pad of Stoesser and in.
Later on in the period, the Rebels took a 2-1 lead off a snipe from Rebels rookie Matthew Gard. He entered the offensive zone and fired a shot that beat the goalie over his right shoulder.
That led to two straight goals from the Hurricanes in the third period and overtime to beat the Rebels.
Captain Kai Uchacz said it wasn’t the result they wanted but felt they played a complete game.
“Those guys were fighting for something. They clinched a playoff spot so they were more desperate in the end and came out on top,” Uchacz said.
“Fatigue kicked in a little bit there in the end but we’ve got to down the stretch in the playoffs figure out how to stay disciplined throughout the full 60 minutes, especially when we’ve got the lead in the third.
The Rebels are now just four points behind the Medicine Hat Tigers for fourth in the Eastern Conference with three games to go in the regular season.
Red Deer will wrap up the regular season with three games coming up this week. First, they’ll head to Swift Current to take on the Broncos on Wednesday followed by a home game against the Edmonton Oil Kings on Saturday. On Sunday they’ll head to Edmonton for the rematch at Rogers Place.
