Red Deer Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter is slowly running out of ways to talk about a loss.
The Rebels dropped their 13th straight game on Saturday night at the Centrium, and have just two wins in their last 32 games.
This time, it was a 3-1 loss to the Kamloops Blazers. Red Deer hasn’t won at home since Oct. 28.
“It’s another loss. We know what we’re going through. There’s no easy way here. It’s just trying to stay upbeat and keep the kids going and keep working,” Sutter said.
“There’s a lot of games here where we’re right there going into the third period and we don’t seem to find a way to get above the line. Tonight it’s a 2-1 game and we never got an opportunity to score.”
Red Deer had a much-improved effort from their Friday night matchup against the Prince Albert Raiders, but after going ahead 1-0 in the first period, they just weren’t able to beat Blazers goalie Dylan Ferguson.
The 19-year-old netminder, who is the property of the Las Vegas Golden Knights made 36 stops in the victory, including a number of big saves late in the second period with the Blazers ahead 2-1.
“It’s a learning experience for those young kids,” Sutter said.
“Our will was good, we had chances, that’s one of the best goalies, if not one of the top two goalies in our league. You’re not going to score easy on him. There’s rebounds there but we just weren’t able to get there and get them. He did a great job covering them up.”
Rebels forward Josh Tarzwell scored his first goal with the club after being acquired in December from the Lethbridge Hurricanes to open the scoring. The 17-year-old Red Deer product tipped home an Alex Alexeyev point shot on the power play midway through the first period.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t really matter in the end,” Tarzwell said of his goal.
“A lot better effort, but we just need to find a way to win. Especially when we have a lead for that much of the game.”
Jackson Shepard found the equalizer at 7:36 of the second just as a Rebels penalty expired. The Blazers forward picked up a loose puck and slid it five hole past Riley Lamb.
Kamloops took the lead late in the second when a rebound bounced off Lamb’s glove and into the chest of Travis Walton before it slid into the net. The bad bounce, which have come in waves for the Rebels during this losing streak, sucked much of the momentum away from Red Deer.
“You look at their second goal, it’s off their chest and into our net. We just killed two big penalties off, the shift after penalties are huge and we did a great job on the PK. Very next shift they score,” Sutter said.
“Then three shifts after the second (penalty kill) they score again. It’s just things that we need to continue to work on. In those situations, there’s certain guys who get on the ice because the penalty killers need to be rested.”
Late in the third, Connor Zary wired a wrist shot that Lamb kicked out right to Orrin Centazzo who scored his eighth of the season to put the Blazers ahead for good.
Sutter had his top unit of Brandon Hagel, Kristian Reichel and Mason McCarty on the ice along with Alex Alexeyev and Dawson Barteaux when Kamloops converted their third goal with 2:22 to play.
“We put our experienced guys out on the ice and they get scored against. It is what it is and we just have to keep working and stay with it,” Sutter said.
Sutter admitted that offensively his team is struggling to score and that’s been one of the major issues during the losing streak. Even with a number of chances and a better effort on Saturday, Red Deer still wasn’t able to pick up a victory.
“I thought we played well. Obviously, scoring is difficult for us. We need to get some offence from our top players and our older guys. They’re struggling with that right now and we’re expecting our 16 and 17-year-olds to score,” Sutter added.
“You can’t question the effort, can’t question the work ethic. I thought we did a lot of good things. We played with pace, good speed. Every little thing seems not to go our way.”
Red Deer is back on the ice Tuesday when the Medicine Hat Tigers are in town.
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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