Rebels implode in third period, lose big to Oil Kings
Oil Kings 8 Rebels 3
EDMONTON — Three days past Christmas and the Red Deer Rebels were still in a giving mood.
The Rebels were in great shape after 40 minutes Saturday night at Rogers Place, then committed a series of giveaways in the third period that were partly responsible for an 8-3 WHL loss to the Edmonton Oil Kings.
Leading 2-1 after two periods in front of 7,622 fans, the Rebels coughed up the puck on several occasions en route to surrendering a whopping seven goals in the final 20 minutes.
Needless to say, it wasn’t pretty.
“For 40 minutes we were actually playing pretty well and in the third they got that early goal on a bad turnover,” said Brent Sutter.
The Rebels GM/head coach was referring to Jake Neighbours’ first of three third-period goals, at the 52-second mark, that knotted the score at 2-2. Neighbours broke in alone on Rebels netminder Byron Fancy after a defensive error inside the Red Deer blueline.
The Rebels, though, roared right back to regain the lead when Zak Smith connected a mere 10 seconds later, flipping a backhand past Oil Kings goaltender Sebastian Cossa from in tight.
But with Rebels forward Chris Douglas off for hooking the hosts pulled even once again, Ethan McIndoe getting credit for the tally following a video review at 2:49.
“We score right away and then take a bad penalty after that and it ended up being a tie game,” said Sutter. “We never seemed to recover after that.”
From there, it snowballed in a big way for the visitors.
Neighbours potted the eventual winner at 8:19, his bad-angle shot from the right circle beating Fancy over the shoulder, and then completed his hat trick with another bad-angle volley that might have deflected off a Red Deer defender or Fancy.
Dylan Guenther made it 6-3 just over six minutes later, breaking to the net and burying a feed from Riley Sawchuk, and Vladimir Alistrov and Loeden Schaufler, with a screened point shot, rounded out the onslaught.
It was a rough reminder for a team that had performed at an impressive level the previous 10-12 games that there’s still plenty of work to be done.
“We just did everything we did in October,” said Sutter. “We started turning pucks over, we were second to pucks. And penalties hurt us tonight.
“That was a tough third period. It was a tight game going into the third, we were right in the fight. We just let it get away on us.”
Josh Tarzwell notched the other two Rebels goals — his 15th and 16th of the season — opening the scoring 6:11 into the contest by squeezing a puck past Cossa from the side of the net, and then giving the visitors a 2-1 lead late in the second period after a power-play shot by Cam Hausinger deflected off the veteran forward.
Guenther had tied the game at one earlier in the middle frame with a power play tally.
Fancy was terrific over the first 40 minutes before struggling somewhat in the third. He finished with 32 saves, while Cossa stopped 28 shots.
The Rebels were scheduled to skate Sunday morning in preparation for a Monday clash with the visiting Everett Silvertips.
“We have to learn from it,” said Sutter of Sunday’s setback. “That’s what can happen where you’re playing a good team and you get out of your element.
“Our turnovers in the neutral zone were terrible. In recent games we were just keeping it simple and playing the right way.”
The Oil Kings were two-for-six on the power play; Red Deer was one-for-six .
