A second period lapse buried the Red Deer Rebels on Friday.
Tied 1-1 with the Seattle Thunderbirds after 20 minutes in Seattle, the home side scored four unanswered goals to sink the Rebels.
Red Deer mounted a comeback in the third with three goals, but couldn’t close the deficit and fell 6-4 to the Thunderbirds.
Zak Smith scored for the Rebels at 8:22 of the first, while Alex Alexeyev and Oleg Zaytsev started the comeback with goals in the third. Reese Johnson also scored with the extra attacker late in the game to get them within a goal.
Noah Philp, Andrej Kukuca, Matthew Wedman and Henrik Rybinski scored for the Thunderbirds in the second.
Wedman clinched the victory with an empty-net goal with 52 seconds left in the contest.
Rebels netminder Byron Fancy stopped 38 shots in the loss.
Red Deer will take on the Portland Winterhawks Saturday, before finishing the U.S. road trip against Tri-City on Tuesday.
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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