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Rebels knock off the Hitmen

The Red Deer Rebels are quick learners.
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Red Deer Rebel Adam Kambeitz tries to get one past Calgary Hitman goalie Micheal Snider during the Rebels’ 5-1 win at the Centrium on Friday.

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The Red Deer Rebels are quick learners.

Three nights after coming up lame in various departments in a 4-2 loss to the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers, the Rebels were all hustle and bump on Friday night while cruising to a 5-1 Western Hockey League win over the Calgary Hitmen before 5,404 patrons at the Centrium.

The visitors were severely short-handed in terms of talent with a handful of key forwards in sick bay, but the Rebels weren’t in a sympathetic mood.

The turn-about in emotion and intensity had something to do with a series of hard-ass practices conducted by head coach Jesse Wallin and assistants Bryce Thoma and Chris Neiszner on Wednesday and Thursday.

“Our compete level was better tonight. We addressed that this week in practice and had a few discussions,” said Wallin.

“Our practices were designed to raise that level a bit and I thought we responded in the right way tonight.

“The guys came out and played hard and the intensity was better. The emotion and compete levels were better and that’s what you need at this time of the year.”

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins led the way with three goals, giving him 23 on the season.

The Rebels phenom opened the scoring midway through the first period, beating Hitmen netminder Michael Snider high to the glove side on a breakaway.

He then potted the eventual winner six minutes later, stepping out of the corner and roofing a shot after waiting for Snider to commit.

“He’s a talented guy. Everyone knows that, and he was sharp tonight,” said Wallin.

Rookie rearguard Matthew Dumba upped the count to 3-0 with a blast from between the blueline and faceoff circle 24 seconds later and the Rebels never looked back.

Nugent-Hopkins completed his hat trick at 11:32 of the middle stanza, catching the corner of the net from the high slot with the Rebels enjoying a two-man advantage.

“He’s a guy who is pretty special on the power play and when it’s five-on-three he has even a little more room and space,” said Wallin.

Kris Foucault scored Calgary’s lone goal — a short-handed marker — late in the period following a turnover in the Red Deer end, and Rebels winger John Persson, with his 31st of the season, closed out the scoring at 6:49 of the final frame, finishing a three-way passing play that involved linemate Andrej Kudrna and defenceman Justin Weller.

Kudrna, whose play had slipped in recent outings, had a big night with four assists.

“He’s a guy whose compete level has been down a bit in the last few games,” said Wallin. “He did some work on that this week, including watching some video, and we saw the results of that tonight.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, at this time of the year you have to compete and get your nose dirty, and Andrej got rewarded for competing hard tonight.”

Rebels netminder Darcy Kuemper stopped 21 shots to record his 40th win of the season, tying Cam Ward’s franchise mark set in the 2002-03 season.

Snider made 34 saves for the Hitmen, who have a mere 19 wins this season — a league low — after winning the WHL championship last spring.

“We’re a fragile team and it seems like when things don’t go well for us we dip a bit,” said Hitmen assistant coach and former Calgary Flames forward Joel Otto.

The Hitmen lost a bundle of top-flight players following the 2009-10 season and expected to hit a series of bumps and turbulence during the current campaign.

But the Calgary coaches never envisioned a scenario in which they would sit last in the entire league.

“We have a lot of young players who have been put in difficult situations probably ahead of time and are learning through baptism by fire, but if you were to ask the coaching staff we would have never thought we’d be in this situation at this point in the season,” said Otto.

“I thought we could compete a bit better and fight for a playoff spot for sure. We feel we have under-achieved but we also feel we’re getting better in certain areas.”

gmeachem@www.reddeeradvocate.com