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Red Deer Rebels could clinch playoff spot Friday

The Red Deer Rebels have a chance to book their ticket to the Western Hockey League playoffs as soon as this Friday.
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The Red Deer Rebels battle the Medicine Hat Tigers at the Peavey Mart Centrium Friday night. Puck drop is 7 p.m. (Advocate file photo)

The Red Deer Rebels have a chance to book their ticket to the Western Hockey League playoffs as soon as this Friday.

Red Deer will host the Medicine Hat Tigers at the Peavey Mart Centrium at 7 p.m. Friday night.

The Rebels will earn a playoff berth if they beat the Tigers and the Prince Albert Raiders lose in any fashion to the Saskatoon Blades or the Regina Pats lose in regulation to the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

Alternatively, the Rebels could also clinch a playoff spot Friday if they lose in overtime, while Prince Albert loses in regulation and the Calgary Hitmen suffer any kind of loss to the Moose Jaw Warriors.

If Red Deer doesn’t clinch Friday at home, they will get a second chance Saturday, when they visit the Tigers in Medicine Hat.

The Rebels had a seven-game winning streak snapped in their most recent outing – a 5-2 loss to the Blades. There are still 13 games remaining on the Rebels’ regular-season schedule.

Heading into Friday’s matchup, the Rebels have a 37-9-3-2 record, which firmly places them second in the Central Division, trailing only the Edmonton Oil Kings (42-11-2-1).

Meanwhile, one of Red Deer’s top prospects, forward Ollie Josephson, is set to join the team for the remainder of the season.

The 15-year-old from Victoria, B.C., was selected by Red Deer fifth overall in the 2021 WHL Prospects Draft. He has 53 points in 28 games this year with the South Island Royals U18AAA of the B.C. Elite League.

The six-foot-one, 175-pound player signed a WHL Standard Player Agreement with the Rebels this past December.

“Ollie is the type of guy who every person who’s coached him loves him,” Rebels associate general manager Shaun Sutter said after Josephson signed the contract, just days after the draft.

“The words ‘trust’ and ‘responsibility’ come to mind. Ollie is a great skater and a smart player with a lot of layers to his game. He can play in any situation and make other players around him better.”

Josephson’s father, Mike Josephson, played in the Western Hockey League with the Kamloops Blazers (1992-95) and Lethbridge Hurricanes (1995-97) where he was teammates with Travis Brigley, father of Rebels forward Talon Brigley.



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