The Red Deer Rebels have dropped their second straight game.
After losing the Prince Albert Raiders on Tuesday the Rebels lost a 5-1 contest to the Saskatoon Blades Wednesday evening.
With the setback, Red Deer loses precious ground in the Eastern Conference standings. The second-place Rebels are essentially neck and neck with the third-place Blades.
Penalties continued to be a problem for the Rebels once again after committing nine penalties throughout the game, four of which were for fighting. Forward Ben King was also sent to the box in the third period for a 10-minute game misconduct.
Of those nine committed, the Blades capitalized on three powerplays and the Rebels were unsuccessful on two-man advantage opportunities.
Head coach Steve Konowalchuk said in the first period the penalties got them into trouble.
“We didn’t get the penalty kills and offensively we had some shifts where we were engaged but we weren’t shooting the puck and holding onto it for too long so we didn’t generate any offence,” he said.
“In the first period, Uchacz got in a fight but that took him off the ice for five minutes. We lost a little bit of momentum there but I thought our first was better than it was in Prince Albert but as a whole when you’re taking that many penalties you can’t even get going.”
The Blades scored the lone goal of the first period before extending their lead 3-0 early in the middle frame. Egor Sidorov scored twice and Jayden Wiens added one of his own.
With approximately four minutes left in the period, Craig Armstrong got the Rebels on the board. However, the Blades answered back 20 seconds later off the stick of Brandon Lisowsky.
In the third period, Lisowsky notched his second of the game on the powerplay at the 3:55 mark to extend their lead 5-1.
Rebels’ Frantisek Formanek scored at the midway point of the final period but it wasn’t enough to beat the Blades.
Despite the loss, Konowalchuk remains optimistic about his team.
“We’re still a really good hockey team,” he said.
“It’s kind of a bizarre situation we find ourselves in because, since our last trip, we had a good trip. We had a couple of flat games then a couple of really good games now we’re finding ourselves in trouble again.
“The inconsistency is what’s a little bit puzzling. Once we got going I thought the last of games would carry itself but it certainly hasn’t. So, we’ve got to find a way.”
The Rebels will next head to Brandon, Man. on Friday to take on the Wheat Kings before playing Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats on Saturday.