Rebels 4 Blades 3 (OT)
On Wednesday night, the Red Deer Rebels managed to find a way.
There wasn’t one member of the home club that would have described the 4-3 overtime win against the Saskatoon Blades as textbook, but sometimes you have to take the two points and move on.
That was the approach of Rebels’ captain Adam Musil, who scored the overtime winner with a minute and 19 seconds left in the extra frame.
“I thought we started off pretty good and we took our foot off the pedal in the second period, and regained it in the third,” he said. “We have to be more consistent. It’s something we need to work on, but it’s a good win for us.”
The OT winner was Musil’s second game-winning goal of the season and earned him first star honours. It was also his second goal of the night, as the Rebels first period power play goal, originally credited to Musil before being changed to Colton Bobyk, was eventually given back to the captain. As for the overtime goal, Musil passed on any credit.
“Just give it to Michael [Spacek] and let him work his magic. It was just a lucky bounce, and I flicked it over the pad,” Musil said.
Rebels GM and head Coach Brent Sutter wasn’t as positive in his assessment of his team’s poor performance Wednesday, he said it was a result of too many penalties and some individual play that strayed from the game plan.
“I’m not a very happy camper right now,” Sutter said postgame. “Wasn’t happy at all with the way we played in the second period. I thought we took some dumb penalties. We do self-inflicted things that hurt us, and we need to stick to what allows us to be a good team. In the first period, we played well, and in the third, I thought we did some good things, too.
“We kept the game simple and played in straight lines, do things right and have a good transition and get pucks moved back up the ice we play well … As soon as we get off that page and play a different way, like we did in the second period, we become a below average hockey team. We’re very fortunate to get two points, truthfully I didn’t think we deserved it.”
Sutter also said that Spacek and Brandon Hagel, along with his defence core turned the puck over too often in the second period and tried to play too much cross ice hockey instead of a north-south game.
After the Rebels took a 1-0 lead at 14:27 in the first, the Blades tied the game on a bad turnover just inside the blueline.
The Blades Jackson Caller scored the only goal of the second, before Gage Ramsay, but the visitors ahead 3-1 at 5:40 of the third period. Evan Polei scored his 10th goal of the year for the Rebels on a wrist shot through a screen to get the game within one and Austin Pratt tied it at 9:39 of the third.
Josh Mahura and Spacek each added two assists, while Lasse Petersen made 21 saves in the Rebels’ net for his fifth win of the season.
byron.hackett@www.reddeeradvocate.com