While the end to his WHL journey beckons, Red Deer Rebels forward Mason McCarty has kept focused on a singular task.
The 20-year-old forward from Blackie has had a simple ask for this season since the first day of training camp: A playoff game.
Currently, through 212 WHL games, the veteran, in his final year, hasn’t suited up for a single post-season contest.
“My only goal coming into the year was playoffs. I’ve never played playoffs in this league and that’s something I’m dying for. That’s something I really want,” McCarty said.
The prospects of that happening looked bleak earlier this winter when the Rebels had won just two games in 32. The belief was still strong, and while the Rebels bent, they never broke.
After Wednesday’s win, they tied the Kootenay Ice for third in the Central Division and the final WHL playoff spot. A meteoric rise including eight wins in their last 11 – from the basement of the WHL standings and near the bottom of the Canadian Hockey League.
“We’ve been playing good, but you just have to take it game-by-game. You can’t look too far ahead and you can’t look in the past either,” he said.
“We’ve definitely had some ups and downs but now we’re playing good. You can’t take anything for granted. You have to keep playing hard. Each night is a new night to prove yourself.”
During the long losing streaks this season, including separate skids of 11 and 13 games and also a time where they had lost 11 extra-time games, breaks for the Rebels were few and far between.
It lent to a long hockey history of bounces favouring the team that worked the hardest or wanted it the most.
Too many times during the bad games, the Rebels were on the wrong side of those bounces.
McCarty said mentally, the losing took a toll in the locker room and on the ice. It turned with a bit a confidence when they strung a few wins together.
“Sports is 90 per cent mental. I think when you get on a roll, it can really help,” he said.
“Sometimes you need a good bounce and there was a time there where we couldn’t buy a bounce. We we were also waiting around for bounces and bad things to happen. Right now if we go out and play and do our thing, (bounces) help for sure.”
McCarty has been a vital part of the recent rise, as the winger notched his career high 30th goal into an empty net to close out a 4-1 victory over the B.C. Division leading Kelowna Rockets Wednesday night.
The five-foot-10, 180-pound winger has a career-high 56 points in 56 games already, a point a game pace.
Still, the goals and points along with the accolades won’t mean a thing if he doesn’t play in April.
“You can’t ever be satisfied. There’s been games where I’ve had a ton of chances but you don’t bury,” McCarty said.
“Some nights you don’t get any chances or you get a lucky one and someone feeds you a nice pass. I’ve missed a lot of chances this year. It’s not all about goals you have to play the right way… you have to play good all the time and all over the ice.”
The Rebels will visit the Victoria Royals on Friday and then play the Vancouver Giants on Sunday before heading back to Red Deer.
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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