The Red Deer Rebels roller coaster ride to the playoffs continued Saturday night with a 2-1 overtime loss to the Swift Current Broncos.
With both Calgary and Lethbridge winning in regulation, the one point for the Rebels wasn’t good enough with only seven games left in the season.
“Getting down to the nitty-gritty. Both Calgary and Lethbridge win, so we lose a point to those teams. We’re still in control but we have to nail down these games that we have leads in, we can’t lose them in the third because you’re too passive,” Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter said.
On 90s night at the Centrium and the Rebels in their throwback black jerseys, the home side let two points slip away when Swift Current scored with just 2:42 left in the third.
Sylvan Lake native Tyler Steenbergen spoiled the party 52 seconds into overtime for his 46th goal of the year.
Sutter said his team simply sat back in the third period and let the Broncos control the play.
“I thought for two periods we were pretty solid. We played pretty well. Obviously our goaltender was very good. In the third again, we got back on our heels, sat back,” Sutter said.
“We need to keep the push and get on our toes and go after it, try not to be too protective. We didn’t have much of a forecheck and we weren’t chipping pucks. We had too many turnovers in our zone in the third. The tying goal we had the puck on our stick and we didn’t get it out of the zone and ends up in the back of our net.”
The Rebels got a standup performance from goalie Riley Lamb who was first star with 39 saves.
Dawson Martin scored the only Rebels goal of the night on the power play after Colton Bobyk blasted a shot over the net.
The puck bounced in front and Martin cashed the loose puck for his 8th goal of the season.
Red Deer killed off three minor penalties in the first period, and won the special teams battle going one for two on the power play.
The Saskatoon Blades are next on the schedule for the Rebels on March 7.