Rebels 4 Warriors 0
MOOSE JAW, Sask. — Whatever goal scoring problems the Red Deer Rebels were having, it should be safe to consider them solved.
After lighting up Kootenay Ice goalie Nathan Lieuwen for six goals on 19 shots on Saturday, they burned Moose Jaw Warriors back stop Thomas Heemskirk four times on 25 shots in a 4-0 Rebels’ win Wednesday night.
“As a team we talked, we wanted to get back to our identity — we want to be a hard working team that is tough to play against,” said Red Deer Rebels assistant coach Bryce Thoma. “I thought for the last two games . . . we worked really, really hard in both of those games and we seem to have been rewarded on the score sheet.”
It’s not like the Rebels were picking on back up goalies thrown to the wolves Lieuwen and Heemskirk are two of the better goalies in the Western Hockey League.
However, neither of them are having quite the season that Rebels goalie Darcy Kuemper is having who posted his seventh shutout of the campaign and 13th of his Rebels’ career — both team records. In the process Kuemper ran his record to 25-8-1-2 and lowered his goals against average to a paltry 1.88 and improved his save percentage to 0.930 — all tops in the league.
“He’s been huge and I though tonight he made some timely saves,” said Rebels head coach Jesse Wallin.
“He made some really big saves early in the game when the score was tight and allowed us to pull away and get the lead. He’s been strong He’s big and he’s been playing real composed. I think he gives our guys a lot of confidence having him back there.”
Another Rebel who continued his hot play was forward Brett Ferguson who scored a goal and added two assists to give him eight points in his last two games.
“He’s working hard and he’s getting rewarded for his effort,” said Thoma. “At the same time he’s getting to the dirty areas of the ice and he’s just capitalizing on his chances and making good decisions with the puck. When you do those types of things you usually get rewarded.”
Ferguson opened the scoring 48 seconds into the game with his 11th marker of the campaign — Adam Kambeitz and Aaron Borejko picked up the helpers — and then rookie rear guard Matt Dumba made 2-0 with his 11th of the season on the power play at 18:44 from Ferguson and Daulton Siwak. John Persson pushed it to 3-0 with his 15th goal from Andrej Kudrna with 20 seconds left in opening period.
Rebels star forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins put the game out of reach 14:30 into the second period with his 11th goal from Ferguson.
From there Kuemper took over making 20 saves over the final two stanzas and 32 overall.
Heemskirk (22-13-0-2) finished with 21 stops in the loss.
“There’s something about Moose Jaw, this is his second shutout in Moose Jaw this year,” said Thoma. “We started out good, we scored an early goal to be up and pretty much any chance they got he was there with the big save when we needed it.”
The Rebels stayed out of the sweepstakes at the deadline for players like Brayden Schenn, but in the end that could be a good thing. While the Rebels did not want to mortgage the future and part of the present for a quick fix, the lack of moving anyone also goes towards a vote of confidence for their current cast.
“From the start of the season Jesse and the coaching staff have believed in this group of kids we have,” said Thoma. “They’re all good kids, they all work hard and they all do things right on and off the ice. They’re just a pleasure to coach. We’re like one big family, especially when we get out on the road, they’re all like brothers. When they are like that it translate to the ice when you’re a tight knit team. We like what we have not only for this year but for next year as well.”
This game was a big show of that confidence as they are two games into a six-game road trip through Saskatchewan. The Rebels (26-12-1-4) are next in Brandon (14-24-1-6) Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and then Regina (15-21-5-1) on Saturday and Swift Current (22-23-0-1) on Sunday, a 6 p.m. start for both games
“Any time you go out on the road you want to win that first game, and get a good start to the road trip — it’s two points no one can take away from us,” said Thoma. “Tomorrow we’ll have a light practice and we’ll start preparing for a little bit of travel and three tough games. Three games in three nights is never easy.”
Notes — The Rebels went two-for-six on the power play while killing off all four of the Warriors’ man advantages . . . The Rebels next home game is Jan. 22 when they host Moose Jaw at 7:30 p.m.
jaldrich@www.reddeeradvocate.com