Rebels 4
Tigers 3
The Red Deer Rebels defeated the Medicine Hat Tigers 4-3 on Saturday night for their second straight victory.
At Co-op Place in Medicine Hat, Rebels goaltender Rhett Stoesser made 37 saves and captain Ollie Josephson had two points to knock off the CHL's top-ranked team in back-to-back games.
Head coach Dave Struch said the team battled hard.
"We'll never question their compete level and Stoesser was really good for us," Struch said.
"We played a better team. They were better than they were on Friday night. Their skill showed for them tonight so we had to play without the puck for the majority of the evening... Overall when we got the puck more often than not we gave it back to them. When we play good teams like this consecutively it's not going to be easy and they brought their best tonight. We did some good things without the puck to give us a chance to win."
The Rebels second game in as many nights against the Tigers started with a bang.
Just 12 seconds into the matchup on Saturday night at Co-op Place, Rebels forward Carson Birnie dropped the gloves with Tigers defenceman Josh Van Mulligen to ignite the crowd.
Just 5:26 seconds into the game Tigers defenceman Joseph Woo drove to the net from the blue line down the left circle and stickhandled from his backhand to his forehand to beat goaltender Rhett Stoesser.
The Rebels found the equalizer 23 seconds later off the stick of captain Ollie Josephson who ripped a wrist shot from the high slot that beat goalie Ethan McCallum on his glove side. His goal came on the Rebels' first shot of the game.
Later in the opening frame rookie forward Cohen Poulin scored his first WHL goal.
The 17-year-old from Abbotsford, B.C., who was recently signed by the club after he was listed last year, fired a shot from the slot off the feed from Jeramiah Roberts that went through the five-hole of the goaltender.
Midway through the second period defenceman Jace Weir hammered in a one-timer from the top of the left circle off the pass from Samuel Drancak on the powerplay.
That led to a goaltending change by the Tigers who replaced McCallum with Jordan Switzer. McCallum made just five saves on eight shots.
The Tigers opened the scoring in the third period when forward Andrew Basha redirected the puck into the net to complete a tic-tac-toe play from Shane Smith and Gavin McKenna on the powerplay.
However, the Rebels regained their two-goal lead just 7:10 into the third period to lead 4-2. Forward Talon Brigley scored his first of the season on his backhand while on the offensive rush off the feed from Josephson.
With under six minutes left, Tigers Hayden Harsanyi brought the Rebels within one once again. After the Rebels took a penalty with 1:18 left, the Tigers applied pressure on the powerplay but the Rebels held on for their second straight victory.
"They should have some confidence," Struch added.
"Last year when we played this team it's the same team but they're better. Both teams have learned from their experience last year and now it's important we learn from this. We've got another game against them next weekend and it's going to be that much more amped up. We're going to have to be better than we were tonight but we'll work on it throughout the week and get ready for another big game."
The Rebels will welcome the Tigers to the Centrium next Friday at the Centrium at 7 p.m. followed by a matchup with the Calgary Hitmen on Saturday.
