It wasn’t pretty, but the Red Deer Rebels got the job done.
Red Deer picked up their third straight victory on Tuesday with a 3-1 triumph over the Calgary Hitmen in a front of a modest crowd of 3,405 fans at the Centrium.
For the second consecutive game, through parts of the night it was sloppy, yet the Rebels managed to earn two points.
“I thought we started out quick, we wanted to get a good jump early. I thought we let our foot off the gas, which we’ve been doing lately,” said Rebels acting head coach Brad Flynn.
“A lot of credit goes to our veteran guys. The 20-year-olds, they pulled through and started grinding again and everybody else followed suit.”
Flynn took over coaching duties for the night while GM/head coach Brent Sutter is on the Vancouver Canucks fathers’ trip watching his son Brandon play.
Rebels defenceman Alex Alexeyev extended his goal-scoring streak early in the game. Just two minutes and 14 seconds into the night, on their second shot, Alexeyev ripped a wrist shot high glove side on Hitmen goalie Carl Stankowski.
His second of the game was on a point shot that took a fortunate bounce of a Calgary stick and caromed into the Hitmen net. The Russian defenceman is already up to six goals on the year, one off his total through 45 games last season.
“He was great tonight,” Flynn said of Alexeyev.
“He gives us lots of minutes and he’s a wonderful kid and a really good player. We wanted to make sure we got pucks high and get shots from the top and he did a good job of that tonight.”
After a spirited tilt between River Fahey and Zach Huber late in the first period, the Hitmen capitalized on the ensuing power play. Just 28 seconds into the man advantage after Fahey received an instigator penalty for the fight, Egor Zamula notched his first goal of the season.
The game slogged along in the second period and neither team was able to find the back of the net. Flynn said the middle period has given them trouble lately as the young group starts to stray from their identity.
“Brent is really big on our identity about being courageous and competitive,” Flynn said.
“We got away from that and started turning pucks over at the blue line. When we do that, we’re an average team. When we stick to our identity and keep it simple, we showed what we can do.”
In the third, Rebels netminder Ethan Anders made a number of big saves. The biggest came near the four-minute mark with the Rebels up 2-1, when Carson Focht was alone in the slot. Anders turned him aside for one of his nine third period stops. Anders was third star and finished the night with 30 saves.
“Andy was awesome. He’s been really good for us and he’s just going to keep rolling,” said Rebels captain Reese Johnson.
Brandon Hagel sealed the victory with an empty-net goal and the veteran has six goals in his last four games.
After a pair of losses to start the WHL season, the Rebels now have wins in eight of their last 10 games.
“We want to be a tight-knit group and I think that’s really been a focus this year and it really helps late in games. Being tight and knowing we can win,” Johnson said.
The Rebels are on the road Wednesday to take on the Medicine Hat Tigers.
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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