Raiders 4 Rebels 2 (Prince Albert leads best-of-seven series 3-0)
The hole just got a lot deeper for the Red Deer Rebels.
They’ll need more than a shovel to dig out of this deficit, after a 4-2 loss in Game 3 to the Prince Albert Raiders in the Eastern Conference quarterfinal.
Prince Albert leads the best-of-seven series 3-0 and will try to sweep away the Rebels Wednesday. The visitors were better in nearly every area Tuesday at the Centrium, say for Rebels netminder Ethan Anders who turned aside 38 shots in the loss and was second star of the night.
“Their goalie was real good. He made some key saves and we hit a lot of posts and missed a lot of the net,” said Raiders coach Marc Habscheid.
“When we hit the net, he made some real good saves. I liked our energy and we skated real well. It’s great, we got three but we need one more.”
For the Rebels, too many turnovers, too many mistakes and not enough push back against the best regular season team in the WHL is the reason they face elimination in Game 4.
“We spent a lot of time chasing. We never had much of a forecheck at all. They’re a good team but you gotta get after them. I didn’t like our forwards at all. There was no urgency at all of getting in there and battling and compete,” said Rebels GM/head coach.
“Turnovers in the neutral zone. In our zone, we chased a lot of numbers. Just wasn’t enough urgency in our game especially the first two periods. Andy stood on his head, he played outstanding for us. When you get only 14 shots, you’re not winning.”
Only 69 seconds into the contest, Noah Gregor picked off a breakout pass in the neutral zone and after he deked a Rebels’ defender, put a backhand high blocker over Anders. The tally was the first of four unassisted goals for Prince Albert.
“This is always a tough barn to play in, Red Deer always plays really good here. Getting a quick lead is always good for us,” Gregor said.
To make matters worse in the opening frame, Prince Albert also struck shorthanded. Dante Hannoun went end-to-end and fired a laser off the post and in.
Red Deer was outshot 15-5 in the first 20 minutes.
Brandon Hagel helped wake up the hometown crowd 4:37 into the second. He fired a backhand and jumped on his own rebound that cut the deficit in half on Red Deer’s ninth shot of the game. It was his fourth goal of the series in just three games.
.@Bhags9 has @Rebelshockey on the board in the second! The Rebels trail by one. #PAvsRD | #WHLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/cu2xCRcPq7
— The WHL (@TheWHL) March 27, 2019
Through two periods, although only down a goal, Red Deer was outshot 28-11. It was the Raiders commitment to shot blocking that led to much of the difficulty getting pucks through for the home side.
“Everything is too slow. We get it we have to get going. You have to make decisions before you get the puck you have to know what you’re doing,” Sutter said.
“You have to have an idea before you get it and it’s stuff we work on all year in practice. We seem to have guys that have a hard time grasping the details and fundamentals. That comes down to urgency too.”
With 3:15 to play in the third, Gregor picked off another clearing attempt and sniped high glove for his second of the contest.
The Rebels pulled within a goal with the goalie out and 62 seconds left, on a goal from captain Reese Johnson. The weren’t able to muster another as the urgency was simply too little, too late for the home side. Parker Kelly iced the game with an empty-net goal.
“You’re down 2-0 in the series coming into your own rink… we tweaked some things within our system to help the kids out. If there’s not urgency, it’s kind of fruitless. It’s unfortunate,” Sutter said.
“Obviously, our back is against the wall but we have to get a better effort from a lot of players. That to me is not the way you can play at this time of year. After the second period, I said it was like we were playing exhibition season.”
The Rebels will look to stave off elimination in Game 4 at home on March 27, with puck drop set for 7 p.m.
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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