Rebels 5
Hitmen 2
The Red Deer Rebels are headed back to the playoffs.
On Saturday they clinched their spot in the 2024 WHL playoffs with a 5-2 victory over the Calgary Hitmen at the Peavey Mart Centrium.
The win also marks their third straight and they remain undefeated since interim head coach Dave Struch took over. He said after the game there’s no special formula to winning hockey games and so far, the Rebels are winning through hard work.
“Like I told them in there we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just keep doing the same things over and over again,” he said.
“If we get really good at doing this, we’ll get rewarded for it. The investment that they made this past week, and the way we practiced it’s not easy to do this time of year… We’ve got to get in shape playing hard because come playoff time we’re going to need to win hockey games like this.”
Forward Dwayne Jean Jr. scored a pair of goals and netminder Rhett Stoesser made 23 saves on 25 shots.
Jean Jr. gave credit to his teammates following his best offensive game this season.
“To see those two go into the back of the net it’s been a while for myself. My linemates really brought it tonight and I had to get up to their standards right from puck drop,” he said.
“Dave really knows what he’s doing. He’s going to tell you how it is and he’s going to tell you the truth. You can just tell from the first day he entered the room that he meant business… We work hard for the reward in the end so I’m just really ready for this playoff run.”
The Rebels’ first goal came just over two minutes into the game when defenceman Hunter Mayo fired a shot in front the middle of the offensive zone.
That was the lone goal of the opening frame but the Rebels kept the pressure on in the second period.
Forward Dwayne Jean Jr. scored back-to-back goals to give the Rebels a 3-0 lead. His first came nearly three minutes into the period when he threw the puck on the net from a distance it made its way through traffic and in.
He followed that up with his second of the night seven minutes later with a one-timer from the slot off the pass from Jeramiah Roberts.
A minute later, forward Talon Brigley scored the Rebels’ fourth goal of the evening. Brigley forced a turnover in the offensive zone and from the right side of the net and tapped in the opportunity.
The Hitmen scored their first of the game with four minutes to go in the second off the stick of Maxim Muranov.
In the third period, forward Matthew Gard scored his sixth goal of the year off a rebound on the offensive rush from Roberts.
The Rebels remain just two points behind the Swift Current Broncos for fourth in the Eastern Conference standings and three points behind the Medicine Hat Tigers for the lead in the central division.
“We played great,” Struch added. “We had a little lapse there at the end of the second period but other than that it was 53 minutes of really good hockey.
“Since I’ve been here the first period has been our best period of the year at a big time of the season. We had a really good effort from everybody.”
