Warriors 5 Rebels 4
The special teams just weren’t clicking for Red Deer Rebels Saturday night.
Red Deer gave up two power play goals in the first period and went on 0/2 with the man advantage as the Moose Jaw Warriors beat the Rebels 5-4 in Western Hockey League action at the Peavey Mart Centrium.
“A couple quick goals (against) on the penalty kill early probably ended up being the difference, but our guys battled hard,” said Rebels head coach Steve Konowalchuk.
“Obviously there’s nobody happy in that locker (following the loss). We’ve got a competitive group of guys and it hurts when we lose. But they played hard and came with a purpose. You don’t always get the results you want.”
Rebels forward Ben King scored his 27th goal of the season about four minutes in to break the ice. Hunter Mayo started the play by blocking a shot in the defensive end. The puck ended up on the stick of Rebels forward Arshdeep Bains, who slid a pass between two Moose Jaw defenders and onto the stick of King, who wired a shot over Warriors goaltender Jackson Unger’s blocker.
Less than a minute later, Moose Jaw’s Denton Mateychuk capitalized on a power play opportunity by sliding a shot underneath Rebels goaltender Connor Ungar.
Red Deer regained the lead 6:27 into the first when Liam Keeler forced a turnover in the Moose Jaw zone and Jace Isley ripped his seventh goal of the season into the net. But the Warriors evened things up again 10:35 into the period, thanks to a power-play tally from captain Daemon Hunt.
After Moose Jaw’s Jagger Firkus scored 4:50 into the second period, King potted his second of the game off of a Bains feed to tie the game at three.
With the goal – his 28th of the season – King moved into a tie for first in the league’s goal-scoring race.
“He’s been good for us all year and we lean on him. He was good tonight,” said Konowalchuk.
Cordel Larson banged a rebound past Ungar to put the Warriors up one goal 3:29 into the third period.
After emptying their net to put out an extra attacker, Red Deer turned the puck over at the opposing team’s blue line and Warriors forward Ryder Korczak found himself on a breakaway with just over a minute and a half left in the game. Korczak fired the puck to the back of the net with a slap shot, which drew the ire of some Rebels players and resulted in a scrum.
Keeler added another goal for the Rebels with 22 seconds left on the clock, but that was as close as the Rebels got, as Moose Jaw walked out of Red Deer with a 5-4 victory.
The three stars were Denton Mateychuk (1), Ben King (2) and Daemon Hunt (3).
Red Deer will play the Broncos in Swift Current Tuesday. The Rebels will return home Friday to host the Broncos at 7 p.m.
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