Two periods of utter dominance was all it took for the Red Deer Rebels to pick up their 35th win of the WHL season.
On the road in Swift Current Wednesday, Red Deer outshot the Broncos 19-2 in the opening frame and held a 2-0 advantage, before slowing down in the second and switching it back to high gear in the third. In the final frame, Red Deer scored three unanswered goals and outshot Swift Current 12-6 on the way to the 5-1 victory.
The win was the Rebels sixth in a row and second on a four game road swing through Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Red Deer got started early Wednesday night, after a good cycle led Jace Isley to chip a pass in front to Dallon Melin, who notched his eighth goal of the season. The goal was also his fifth point in the last two games.
Ben King added to the lead with 3:11 left in the first, a seeing-eye wrist shot through traffic that just creeped over the goal line.
Swift Current scored the only goal of the middle frame, a rebound deposited by Carter Stebbings and outshot Red Deer 9-8 in the period.
The Rebels turned the pressure back up in the third, with a goal 61 seconds into the period from Arshdeep Bains. King started a strong forecheck and managed to slip a pass across the crease to Bains, who buried his 29th goal of the year.
Captain Jayden Grubbe put the game out of reach with shorthanded tally off the rush 8:48 in the period and King notched his league leading 43rd goal of the campaign with 6:27 to play. Bains picked up an assist on the King goal and leads the WHL with 80 points. The Surrey, B.C. native has 21 points in the last nine games.
King sits third in the WHL in points with 78, adding an assist to a pair of goals Wednesday, to go along with seven shots and eight faceoff wins.
Swift Current product Chase Coward made 16 saves in the victory Wednesday against his hometown team and has a 15-8-1 record on the year. He has a 2.44 goals against average and a 0.910 save percentage this season.
With the win, the Rebels improved to 35-15-2 on the season and sit third in the Eastern Conference, one point behind the Winnipeg ICE, who have five games in hand. Red Deer trails the Edmonton Oil Kings for top spot in the Central Division by eight points and each team has played 53 games.
The Rebels play Friday in Regina and Saturday in Saskatoon, before returning home on March 11 to take on the Medicine Hat Tigers.