On Wednesday, the Rebels exhibited a dominant performance in the special teams category, netting two goals while short-handed and three goals on the power play, resulting in a 3-1 advantage in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarter-final. The next game will take place on Friday at the Peavey Mart Centrium. It wasn’t until the second period where the Hitmen opened up the scoring, when at the 5:30 mark Ethan Moore scored his first of the playoffs from Carter Yakemcuk and David Adasynski on the Powerplay.
The Rebels Ben King replied back with a powerplay marker of his own to make the game 1-1 with assists from Mats Lindgren and Kai Uchacz at 8:04.
Then less than a minute later Ollie Josephson scored his first of the post season short handed to boot, to make it a 2-1 game for the Rebels. The assists were to Jayden Grubbe and Jhett Larson.
The Rebels scored again shorthanded at 18:31 of the second period when Jhett Larson scored his first of the playoffs from Jayden Grubbe. The goal looked like it couldn’t of got any easier. Too bad the seats were so empty no one barely seen it. I know there were still over 3,000 people at the dome but it looks way less than it ever has. It really looks and sounds sad compared to just a few years ago.
With just about 30 seconds left in the second period Hunter Mayo closed out the scoring getting his first of the playoffs at 19:28. Assists on the goal to Mats Lindgren and Ollie Jospehson. That makes it a 4-1 game going into the second intermission. Ben King scored on the Power Play at the 5:56 mark of the third period to make it a 5-1 game. Assists on the goal to Mats Lindgren and Jayden Grubbe. Then Kai Uchacz finished off the scoring for the Rebels making it 6-1 at the 12:09 mark of the third period on the Powerplay. Assists on the goal to Ben King and Mats Lindgren.
Other Notes
Rebels Next game is Friday April 7th in Red Deer. The Rebels lead the series 3 games to 1. This could be the end of the road for the Hitmen. A sixth game, if needed, will go Sunday in Calgary and a seventh contest, if required, will be played Tuesday at the Centrium.
Attendance was 3466 at the Dome.
Three Stars were 1) Jayden Grubbe 2) Mats Lindgren 3) Ben King
Rebels outshot the Hitmen 41-37. Kyle Kelsey made 36 saves for the win. Brayden Peters got yanked after the 6th goal and Ethan Buenaventura relieved him and only had to make 2 saves on the 2 shots he faced.
Rebels’ Jayden Grubbe led the WHL with 5 shorthanded assists this season. He had two in the second period tonight.
Calgary captain Riley Fiddler-Schultz missed his second-straight game while Sean Tschigerl was a late scratch.
