Blades 8
Rebels 5
The Red Deer Rebels are on the brink of elimination.
Following an 8-5 loss on Tuesday night at the Peavey Mart Centrium in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Rebels now trail the Saskatoon Blades 3-0 in the best-of-seven series.
After Rebels goaltender Chase Wutzke was listed as out before the game, rookie Taylor Tabashniuk made his WHL debut in net.
Despite losing the game, he made 31 saves on 38 saves in the effort.
Rebels head coach Dave Struch said he thought Tabashniuk handled himself well.
“There was no point that I thought about pulling him. I thought that he made some big saves for us once he settled in,” Struch said.
“He played against a really good team with good offensive players but I thought that he hung in there. I felt that we could have done a better job for him at certain points in the game but I thought we played a really hard game tonight.”
Struch also thought his team played well defensively but admitted there were some breakdowns at times. Struch added that’s bound to happen when young players are on the ice.
“FOr the most part I think those experiences are going to be important for this group,” he added.
The Blades got on the board first when Charlie Wright ripped a wrist shot that beat Rebels netminder Taylor Tabashniuk just 2:36 into the game.
But the Rebels responded 14 seconds later when Carson Latimer converted a wrap-around attempt to tie the game.
Later in the period, the Blades scored back-to-back goals within 20 seconds of each other from Rowan Calvert and Egor Sidorov.
The Rebels got back on the board with less than nine minutes left in the opening period. Forward Carson Birnie scored a shorthanded goal after he threw the puck on the net from the right circle that beat Blades goaltender Evan Gardner.
Red Deer found the equalizer 2:16 into the second period when Quentin Bourne scored his first of the season off the pass from Dwayne Jean Jr. to tie it at three.
However, Blades Trevor Wong and Sidorov answered back with two back-to-back goals to take a 5-3 lead.
With five minutes to go in the second period forward Kalan Lind found some space between Gardner’s foot and the post to cut into the lead.
That marked the end of Garnder’s night. After allowing four goals on 20 shots the Blades replaced him with Austin Elliott.
Blades Egor Sidorov added a powerplay goal before the end of the second period to complete the hat trick.
Saskatoon’s Brandon Lisowsky added another powerplay goal for the Blades to early in the third period to extend their lead by three.
With nearly eight minutes left in the game, the Rebels made a push to try to tie it. Forward Talon Brigley scored a highlight reel goal by completing a spin-o-rama move around the defender before placing the puck in the top corner.
Red Deer eventually pulled their goalie for the extra attacker but Saskatoon sealed the deal with an empty net goal from Lukas Hansen.
The Rebels will fight to extend the series in Game 4 on Wednesday night at the Peavey Mart Centrium at 7 p.m. If the Blades win, the Rebels season will come to an end.
“I don’t think we quit at all so we’ll come out and leave everything on the ice tomorrow night.”