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Red Deer Rebels lose an offensive showdown in Regina

Red Deer lost 6-5 in overtime
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Red Deer Rebels forward Kai Uchacz heads toward the net against the Regina Pats at the Peavey Mart Centrium. (Photo by Ian Gustafson/ Advocate staff)

Pats 6 Rebels 5 (overtime)

The Red Deer Rebels fought until the final buzzer but came up short 6-5 against the Regina Pats on Saturday.

In the final game of Red Deer’s four-game road trip, Rebels captain Jayden Grubbe scored with 52 seconds left in the game to tie it 5-5.

But in overtime Pats, Alexander Suzdalev potted the game-winner less than a minute into the extra frame.

In the back-and-forth contest, Rebels head coach Steve Konowalchuk said he saw more good than bad from his team in the loss.

“It’s hard this time of year. There’s still a little more you can give by a couple of individuals and it takes everybody,” he said.

“You can definitely come out and say we deserved to win but we’ve still got to do more. We’ve got to win… I’m proud of our guys battling back after we were down.

“That kind of mentality is probably the best takeaway that we played a fairly strong game at times that we didn’t give up and we kept our enthusiasm through the whole game.”

In the first period, Rebels forward Frantisek Formanek scored the opening goal less than a minute into the game.

Regina Pats’ phenom Connor Bedard answered at the midway point of the frame on the powerplay for his 59th goal of the year. Rebels Ollie Josephson reclaimed a 2-1 lead for Red Deer with three minutes left in the first.

No one scored until halfway through the second frame when Rebels sniper Kai Uchacz notched his 46th of the season.

However, over 20 seconds later Regina’s Stanislav Svozil and shortly after Riley Ginnell each scored to tie the 3-3.

Rebels Ben King fired a shot into the back of the net before the end of the middle frame to head into the third up a goal.

In the final period, Pats’ Borya Valis scored twice late in the game to take a 5-4 lead.

The Rebels pushed to tie the game in the final minutes and couldn’t buy a goal until they pulled the goalie. With less than a minute Grubbe whacked at the puck in front of the net off the pass from defenceman Christoffer Sedoff and tied the game.

“All those guys out there on the six-on-five are our leaders in their own right,” Konowalchuk said. “It was nice to see Grubbe get that. Those guys are all leaders on our team.”

Despite that, Regina sealed the deal in overtime to win the high-scoring affair at home.

Goaltender Kyle Kelsey was solid in net making 14 saves and Pats netminder Kelton Pyne was impressive between the pipes with 35 stops.

The Rebels finished 1-3 on the road trip and will return home to play Lethbridge on Wednesday and Calgary on Friday. They’ll also play in Calgary on Saturday for an afternoon tilt with the Hitmen at 2 p.m.



Ian Gustafson

About the Author: Ian Gustafson

Ian began his journalism career as a reporter in Prince Albert, Sask. for the last three years, and was born and raised in Saskatchewan.
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