Rebels White 7 Rebels Black 1
The Red Deer Rebels White showed their impatient side on Saturday afternoon, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
The Rebels White were in a hurry to conclude their Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League playoff series with their city rivals, the Rebels Black, and they were acting from past experience.
“After winning Game 1 of our first series with Lethbridge, we came out a little flat in the second game and it almost cost us,” said head coach Dallas Gaume after his squad cruised past the Rebels Black 7-1 at the Arena to complete a sweep of the best-of-three Ram South final.
“We learned from it,” Gaume continued. “Playing in this league is such a learning experience for these kids and you try and teach them and hope that they learn. We talked a lot about that before today’s game — how we can’t let that happen again after winning the first game of this series. The guys, to their credit, came ready to play and got the job done.”
The Rebels White built a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes and never looked back. Chase Thudium scored twice and Colton Bobyk, Ty Mappin, Brett Marsollier, Mik Doell and James Gaume also tallied for the winners, while Andrew Kartusch notched the lone Rebels Black goal.
Jayden Sittler blocked 13 shots for the White. Black netminders Joey Desrosiers and Brody Dirk combined to make 32 saves.
The Rebels Black, who upset the heavily-favoured Airdrie Xtreme in a division semifinal, appeared to run out of gas on Saturday.
Losing their top defenceman, Jordan Steenbergen, to a hit-from-behind penalty and game misconduct early in the contest didn’t help their cause.
“And they were a little banged up,” said Gaume, who had nothing but words of praise for the Black squad.
“I give them a lot of credit, they knocked off Airdrie and won the recent Lethbridge tournament. They had a really good final two months of the season and they were a handful, as we knew they would be.”
The Rebels White advanced to the league semifinals and a date with either the Calgary Royals or Calgary Bisons, who met in Game 3 of the Challenger South division final on Saturday.
Both Calgary teams finished with more points than the Rebels White in regular-season action and both won the season series with Gaume’s crew.
“But they were good games,” said the Rebels White coach. “We can compete with either of them.”
gmeachem@www.reddeeradvocate.com