Not many hockey players are happier than Red Deer Rebels defenceman Alex Alexeyev.
The Russian rearguard wears his emotions on his sleeve and let it all hang out after he scored the overtime winner Saturday night against the Kootenay Ice.
In front of 4,405 strong at the Centrium, Alexeyev was left alone in the Kootenay zone, and powered to the net before he slipped a shot past Ice goalie Duncan McGovern to help earn the 4-3 victory.
Alexeyev’s celebration on the overtime goal, his fourth of the year was joy personified.
“Kind of a weird goal because they just let me skate in,” Alexeyev said with a smile.
“Overtime goals, it’s always really exciting and it makes really happy. You can tell by my celebration. Awesome game in the end, awesome feeling.”
Early in the first on the power play, Rebels defenceman Carson Sass wired a one-time shot low glove past Duncan McGovern. It was the first goal of the year for Sass, who only returned Friday from a four-game absence after suffering an upper-body injury.
Brandon Hagel then burst down the wing with the Rebels shorthanded early in the second and with a quick release put the home side ahead 2-0. The tally was his fifth goal in the last two games and team-leading ninth of the year.
Hagel’s goal was just 10 seconds into a Ryan Gottfried hooking minor, but the rest of the penalty would prove costly for Red Deer.
Ethan Sakowich was called for a high stick and on the ensuing two-man advantage, Jaegar White beat Ethan Anders along the ice stick side.
Before the second penalty expired, Brett Davis went bar down to tie the game at two. His fourth goal of the year was just 16 seconds after White’s tally.
“Momentum hurts at that time,” Rebels GM/head coach Brent Sutter said.
“You have to get it back. We seemed to have a hard time. We just talked about staying out of the penalty box and in three and a half minutes we had already two minor penalties, one five-on-three. It was tough that way, but we stayed with it. Credit to the kids, they regrouped and had a decent third and had some scoring chances.”
After plenty of back-and-forth hockey through the final 20 minutes, Oleg Zaytsev finally broke the deadlock with just over two minutes to play. The Russian forward fired a puck on goal, hunted down the rebound and slid a backhand past McGovern.
The lead only lasted 46 seconds. After a pair of Rebels lost a battle below their own goal line, White picked up the pick and sniped his second of the night short side.
Anders finished the night with 29 saves and made a number of big saves down the stretch to help the Rebels get into overtime.
Sutter noted early in the game, it was tough to get in the flow for his group with five minor penalties in the first 24 minutes. Their power play also struggled after the first goal, failing to score on four opportunities.
“I thought the second period, the last 10 minutes we let frustration get involved with it. Guys who play on the power play got frustrated because it wasn’t clicking. We gave up two power play goals,” Sutter said.
“We regrouped after the second and talked about not getting frustrated and getting our game where it needs to be. Play 20 minutes and give ourselves a chance to win. We found a way, it certainly wasn’t a perfect game, certainly wasn’t pretty but a win is a win and two points is two points.”
Alexeyev was first star, White was the second star and Jacob Herauf was third star.
The Rebels will host the Calgary Hitmen on Tuesday night with puck drop set for 7 p.m. at the Centrium.
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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