Time heals all wounds, but for the Red Deer Rebels time won’t slip by fast enough.
The Rebels watched their Western Hockey League season come to a stunning conclusion Saturday night before an overflow gathering of 6,225 at the Centrium, as they blew a 4-1 third-period lead and fell 5-4 in overtime to the Medicine Hat Tigers.
“Yeah, it’s pretty tough to swallow right now,” Rebels captain and graduating defenceman Colin Archer said Sunday. “It still hasn’t fully sunk in. It’s tough . . . not the way we wanted it to end.”
The Rebels led 4-1 when John Persson re-directed Alex Petrovic’s point shot past Tigers netminder Tyler Bunz for Red Deer’s third power-play marker of the game at 2:21 of the third period.
But Boston Leier got that one back for the visitors just 23 seconds later when his pass from the corner glanced off a skate and past Rebels goaltender Dawson Guhle. From there, the Tigers took advantage of defensive miscues and got goals from aces Linden Vey and Emerson Etem to force overtime.
Both clubs had excellent scoring chances in the extra frame, but Guhle — who had made a stunning stop on Hunter Shinkaruk early in overtime — was beaten by Kellan Tochkin at the 9:32 mark, and the Rebels’ season was over as the Tigers took the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal 4-1.
“It’s a tough one to swallow, just the way it happened,” said Rebels overage forward Brett Ferguson, who scored once and set up another goal in the contest.
“We had a lead and then kind of blew it.”
Added Rebels head coach/VP of hockey operations Jesse Wallin: “There wasn’t a whole lot to be said to the players (following the game). We were all devastated and obviously disappointed. But I did tell them I was proud of the way they competed right down to the wire.”
The Tigers led 1-0 on a goal from Cole Grbavac at 13:59 of the opening period and the Rebels drew even when Mathew Dumba blew a power-play wrist shot past Bunz in the final minute of the frame.
The Rebels dominated the second period, outshooting their guests 13-2 while getting goals from Byron Froese and Ferguson (power play). Both came off great passing plays with assists to Ferguson, Turner Elson (on both goals) and Daulton Siwak. Persson’s third-period goal reeked of insurance, but then again the sense of smell can be fleeting.
“We had real high hopes for this group. It’s devastating to be done,” said Wallin.
The players also had lofty expectations.
“Yeah, we all did. It’s disappointing for it to be over this fast,” said Archer. “It’s something we weren’t expecting . . . none of us. We all believed we were going to push this series to a Game 7. It didn’t came out the way we wanted to.
“A lot of things happened in the series that could have gone different ways.”
The Rebels dug themselves a deep hole by losing the first two game of the series on home ice, then dropped a 3-1 Game 3 decision at Medicine Hat before rallying behind Guhle for a 1-0 win in Game 4.
“The first two games didn’t go the way we wanted. It was just kind of one of those things where you wish you could go back in time,” said Ferguson, who admitted that the early two-game deficit was a killer.
While he allowed four goals Saturday, Bunz was still a key factor for the Tigers, making 41 saves. Guhle stopped 28 shots at the other end.
Bunz was the Rebels’ biggest stumbling block the entire series, as he was during the regular season as the Tigers won five of six meetings with Red Deer.
“He (Bunz) played well against us all season,” said Rebels second-year sensation Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. “He did that all year and they (Tigers) are a very good offensive team and play quite a lot different than most teams in the league.”
While the Tigers pretty much owned the Rebels through the regular season, the playoff match-up was one that Wallin didn’t dread.
“It’s just one of those things. I don’t know what the reason was. For whatever reason they just seemed to have our number,” said the Rebels bench boss. “We had troubles scoring on him (Bunz) all year and that just kind of carried over. Meanwhile, they just seemed to capitalize on everything we gave them in the playoffs.
“It’s frustrating because we had our opportunities but couldn’t capitalize on them, and that wasn’t a problem we had all season with the skilled players we have up front . . . with guys who can put the puck in the net. We just weren’t able to do that against Medicine Hat.”
The Tigers created their own breaks late in the deciding game, said head coach Shaun Clouston.
“We finally started to execute, we finally started to get pucks deep,” he said. “Earlier in the game Red Deer did a great job of having all kinds of bodies through the middle and traffic back in their zone.
“We turned the puck over too many times in the second period and in the third period we finally got our ‘D’ up in the play and got our forwards in hard on the forecheck, taking away the walls. Obviously we got one goal that was unfortunate for Red Deer, but we’ll take it. The guys played their best hockey in the third.”
gmeachem@www.reddeeradvocate.com