The Red Deer Rebels pushed the Eastern Conference-leading Saskatoon Blades to the brink on Tuesday night at the Peavey Mart Centrium.
Without Ollie Josephson, Kasper Pikkarainen, Jhett Larson, and Dmitri Toporowski, the Rebels gave Saskatoon all they could handle in the hopes of snapping a six-game losing skid.
While Red Deer picked up a point in the 3-2 overtime loss, their losing streak extended to seven games.
"First period and third period we were good, second period we were hemmed in, they came at us pretty hard and we didn't have an answer for them," said Rebels head coach Dave Struch post-game.
"I felt we played really good defensively, but when we had opportunities to make plays, we didn't execute very well, then in the third period it was our best period I thought in a long time... you talk about playing 60-plus minutes, to get a let down in overtime the way it was, it's unacceptable. We have to get better and move on."
Samuel Dranek opened the scoring for the Rebels things were going well for Red Deer through 20 minutes.
The Blades showed why they're one of the top teams in the WHL in the second, outshooting Red Deer 21-3. Only Zach Olsen found the back of the net for the Blades in the second, as Chase Wutzke stood tall with 20 saves in the frame.
Trae Wilke scored his eighth of the season seven minutes into the third to give Red Deer a 2-1 advantage. The Blades pushed back again, as Tyler Parr equalized just 46 seconds later.
Blades forward Ben Riche went end-to-end early in overtime, and on a two-on-one, let a shot go that Wutzke couldn't handle clean and Parr was there to bang home the rebound.
Despite the loss, Wtuzke was first star on the night with 41 saves. Parr was second star and Grayden Siepmann earned third star honours.
The Blades were 0-for-4 on the power play in the game, and the Rebels didn't have a man-advantage opportunity.
The Rebels are on the road Friday, when they visit the Medicine Hat Tigers.
