Raiders 7 Rebels 2
PRINCE ALBERT — The Red Deer Rebels were on the receiving end of a jolt early Sunday for the second time in a matter of hours.
After falling 7-2 to the Prince Albert Raiders in a Western Hockey League game Saturday night, the Rebels were shaken out of their early-morning slumber when their team bus struck a deer near Landis, Sask.
The collision broke both headlights on the drivers’ side and cracked both windshields. But it might not have been as painful as the Rebels’ loss at Prince Albert, where back-up netminder Bolton Pouliot was lit up for seven goals on 29 shots before 2,220 fans at the Art Hauser Centre.
“It wasn’t a 7-2 game. We gave up six goals on something like 24 shots,” said Rebels GM/head coach Jesse Wallin. “It certainly wasn’t Bolton’s best outing. Having said that, we probably didn’t deserve to win, either. We made a couple too many mistakes.”
The Rebels were in control early, getting goals from Marc McCoy and Cory Millette — the first of the season for both — in the first nine minutes of the contest. But Brandon Herrod replied for the Raiders at 9:55 and Josh Morrissey pulled the home team even in the final minute of the opening period.
“Their (Raiders’) first goal was just another bad turnover and the second one was a real bad goal that shouldn’t have gone in,” said Wallin.
Tied at 2-2, the Rebels coughed up unanswered second-period tallies to Shane Danyluk and Marc McNeill.
“The winning goal came off a casual play. We went back into our own end and our defence was casual getting back to the puck and turned it over. We turned it over three more times on the shift and it ended up in the back of our net,” said Wallin.
The Rebels outshot their hosts 22-16 through 40 minutes and then had nine more shots at Raiders neminder Cole Holowenko in the final frame.
“We had some chances,” said Wallin, whose team held a 31-29 overall edge in shots. “Really, the difference in the game was that they capitalized on our mistakes and their chances and we didn’t.”
Top-end Rebels John Persson and Mathew Dumba were both pointless and minus-4 on the evening, while Alex Petrovic, Turner Elson and Adam Kambeitz were each minus-3 without registering a point.
“Our top guys need to be our top guys. At times they played real well but they can’t be the guys making those huge mistakes,” said Wallin, who admired the play of second-year forwards Chad Robinson and Tyson Ness and rookies Millette and Kayle Doetzel.
“Millette was a threat every time he was on the ice. I saw some pretty good signs out of him,” said Wallin.
The Rebels will spend this week preparing for Friday’s meeting with the Hitmen at Calgary and a home-ice engagement with the Kootenay Ice 24 hours later.
“We’re not hitting the panic button or anything like that,” said Wallin. “All we can do is get ready for our next games. We just have to eliminate the mistakes and find that consistency.”
gmeachem@www.reddeeradvocate.com
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