Rebels 3 Oil Kings 1
The Red Deer Rebels were highly motivated heading into Saturday’s Western Hockey League regular-season ending contest with the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings.
For starters, a victory would set up a first-round playoff date with the Oil Kings instead of the Brandon Wheat Kings, who will play their opening-round games at Winnipeg. That’s two hours up the Queen E for Games 3 and 4 instead of 14 hours across the prairies.
In addition, the Rebels were determined to close out their regular-season slate on a high in order to carry a measure of momentum into the post season, and a loss to their Alberta rivals would have provided the Oil Kings ample food for thought — as in ‘we can beat these guys.’
“We were talking about that in the dressing room, about how we don’t want to give them any flicker of hope,” said Rebels captain and veteran defenceman Colin Archer, following Red Deer’s 3-1 victory before an overflow gathering of 6,411 at the Centrium.
“They’re obviously a good team, a good-skating team with some skill. You don’t want to give a team like that hope.”
Rebels second-year superstar Ryan Nugent-Hopkins potted two goals, including the eventual winner midway through the second period, and Brett Ferguson added an empty-net marker with just over a minute remaining in the game. Cam Abney scored the lone goal for Edmonton.
Darcy Kuemper came up with 23 saves while recording his franchise-best 45th win of the campaign. Jon Groenheyde faced a greater number of challenging shots and blocked 29 overall.
It was a record-breaking regular season for the Rebels, as Kuemper demolished the franchise single-season mark for shutouts with 13 (Shane Bendera and Cam Ward shared the previous record of five) and tied the league record. His 1.86 goals-against average is also the best in Rebels history, easily eclipsing Ward’s previous best mark of 2.05.
Red Deer also set a franchise record for goals against at 159, one less than the previous best number, and the defensive/goaltending accomplishments were front and centre in helping the Rebels capture the Central Division regular-season title for the first time since 2003.
“We had a goal and that was to turn this thing back into a championship organization,” said Rebels head coach/vice-president of hockey operations Jesse Wallin, while discussing what the division crown meant to his team. “We’re not there yet, but we’ve taken some significant steps toward that. You want to be a top team, you want to be on top of everyone. It’s a great accomplishment, something the guys really worked towards at the end of the year.”
The Rebels finished second in the Eastern Conference, which will guarantee home-ice advantage through the second round of the playoffs.
“That second seed is huge. Achieving that was real important as well,” said Wallin.
Archer said the Central Division title is indeed a prize that can be coveted, but not the big reward the club is seeking.
“I think it’s just something we set out to do from the start of the season, kind of proof that we can attain our goals,” he said. “Obviously winning the league is another of our goals, so we have bigger places to go.
“By just doing the little things right and continually chipping away, things can be accomplished. This division title is under out belts, but like I said, there’s more to come.”
l Kuemper was presented with the Red Deer Bottling most valuable player award during the Rebels individual awards ceremony staged prior to Saturday’s game.
Meanwhile, Mathew Dumba was the recipient of the top rookie award (Big 105/The Drive); Colin Archer received the Red Deer Advocate players’ award; Adam Kambeitz was the first recipient of the Gord Hamill Memorial Award for must under-rated player; Alex Petrovic was named top defenceman (Dairyland Foods); Brett Ferguson picked up the award for humanitarian of the year (Rod Traptow Memorial); and Nugent-Hopkins was honoured as the club’s top scorer (Motel 6/Days Inn).
l The Rebels will host the Oil Kings in the first two games of a seven-of-seven Eastern Conference quarter-final Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Games 3 and 4 will be played March 28 and 31 at Rexall Place in Edmonton. Games 5 to 7, if necessary, will go April 2 at the Centrium, April 4 in Edmonton and April 6 at the Centrium.
gmeachem@www.reddeeradvocate.com