Rebels 5
Tigers 3
There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned rivalry.
After playing each other multiple times this season it’s clear the Red Deer Rebels and Medicine Hat Tigers have developed a hatred for one another.
And who can blame them? As the two top teams in the central division it’s to be expected.
Medicine Hat stole the first three matchups this season but on Friday night at the Peavey Mart Centrium, the Rebels came out on top 5-3.
Forward Jhett Larson scored a hat trick and Carson Birnie scored twice to lift the Rebels to victory.
“It was definitely nice to get the monkey off the back,” Larson said.
“It was even better to beat Medicine Hat tonight. I know we haven’t done that this year and it’s good for the boys to be positive. After playing them so many times you just hate them and want to beat them so bad.”
His three-goal game is his first since last season when he did the same against the Calgary Hitmen.
“I think you’re always motivated but you just have to keep it simple when it’s not going your way. Everything went my way tonight. I think I got some bounces. The puck was just finding the net and I got lucky I guess,” he added.
Head coach Derrick Walser said Larson was due for a breakout game.
“You keep telling them you’ve got to do things right all the time it’s not going to happen overnight,” he said.
“You have to keep working, going to the paint, shooting the puck when you have opportunities, and grinding. Eventually, you’ll get rewarded and tonight he was rewarded. I’m grateful he finally took that shot through the defence.”
The Rebels struck first early in the opening period on the powerplay. Larson knocked in the rebound off a point shot from defenceman Hunter Mayo five and a half minutes into the game.
The Tigers answered five minutes later when Oasiz Wiesblatt skated into the slot and fired a shot past Rhett Stoesser. With plenty of traffic in front of the net Stoesser had lost sight of the puck.
Later in the first, forward Carson Birnie put the Rebels up 2-1. While on the offensive rush, Birnie fought off the defender and put the puck through the five-hole as he fell to his knees.
However, after a couple of late penalties to Red Deer, the Tigers went into the second period on a 5-on-3 powerplay.
That led to a powerplay goal 15 seconds into the frame off the stick of young phenom Gavin McKenna.
Larson potted his second of the night to take a 3-2 lead later in the second period. After the Rebels forced a turnover in the Tigers zone, Frantisek Formanek fed Larson in front of the net who beat Tigers goalie Evan May blocker side.
With three and a half minutes left in the period, Medicine Hat applied plenty of offensive pressure until Kadon McCann found the equalizer.
In the third period Red Deer returned the favour with over six minutes to go Larson completed the hattrick off an opportunity in front of the net.
A few minutes later Birnie put the game to bed with his second of the night to take a commanding 5-3 lead.
Walser said his team came out slow but picked up the pace later in the game.
“One of our challenges was we got to find our will [to win]. We’ve got to be desperate tonight we don’t want to lose four in a row to these guys,” he said.
“We’ve got to get the monkey off our back and I thought in the second and third period we were excellent. Our forecheck was awesome tonight.”
Next up for the Rebels is four straight games at home beginning on Wednesday, Jan. 10 against the Spokane Chiefs.
