The Red Deer Rebels scored five unanswered goals on route to a 5-2 victory in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Quarter Final over the Medicine Hat Tigers Friday night. Upsetting the Medicine Hat Tigers in the first round of the playoffs and advancing to the second round to face the Saskatoon Blades. Again.
Carson Latimer opens up the scoring for the Rebels with his 4th goal of the playoffs to make it 1-0 Rebels at 2:56 of the first period. The assist on the goal went to Jhett Larson.–The Rebels stormed out of the gate and gained some early momentum with Carson Latimer scoring his fourth goal of the series at 2:56
Dwayne Jean Jr makes it 2-0 for the Rebels at 10:52 of the first period with the assists on the goal going to Matthew Gard and Hunter Mayo. Dwayne Jean Jr. scored at 10:52, making it 2-0. He received a drop pass from Matthew Gard and shot from the right circle, beating Tigers’ starting goalie, Zach Zahara. This led to Zahara’s replacement by Ethan McCallum, who had previously made seven saves.
Shots on goal in the first period were 11-7 for the Rebels
Frantisek Formanek makes it a 3-0 game when he scores his first of the playoffs at 15:48 of the second period with the assists going to Kai Uchacz and Kalan Lind.–Frantisek Formanek gave the Rebels a little more breathing room in the middle stanza when collected a rebound off a Kai Uchacz shot, to beat McCallum at 15:48. Kalan Lind played a major role in the goal, stealing the puck in the Tigers zone to set up Uchacz.
Despite a 5 on 3 in the second period and another power play opportunity the Tigers could not solve Chase Wutzke with 18 shots in the period, all turned aside.
Shots in the second period were 18-5 for Medicine Hat
Kai Uchacz scored on the Power Play to make it 4-0 at 4:37 of the third period from Mats Lindgren.– During the third period, Uchacz managed to score at 4:37 while on a powerplay. This was due to a fortunate bounce off the Zamboni door, which resulted in an open side goal opportunity.
Talon Brigley scored his first goal of the playoffs at 5″06 of the third period unassisted.–Talon Brigley made it 5-0, ripping a shot off McCallum’s arm just 29 seconds later.
Andrew Basha scored for the Tigers with the assist going to Dru Krebs at 10:57 of the third period.
Nate Corbet scored from Reid Andresen and Tyler MacKenzie at 15:47 of the third
Shots on goal in the third period were 13-9 for the Tigers. The Tigers outshot the Rebels 38-25 in the game.
Chase Wutzke made 36 saves on the 38 shots that he faced for the win. For the Tigers Zach Zahara made 7 saves on the 9 shots that he faced before being yanked after the second goal scored by Dwayne Jean Jr. He was replaced by Ethan McCallum who made 13 saves on the 16 shots that he faced for the Tigers.
Three Stars of the game were the Tigers 20 year old who played in their final junior game 1) Rhett Parsons 2) Dru Krebs 3) Bogdans Hodass. Next season will mark the first season since 2014-15 that the WHL will not have a Krebs brother in it.*
Attendance in Medicine Hat 5263
Rebels next game is Friday April 12th in Saskatoon against the Blades. The Rebels next home game is Tuesday April 16th for game 3 against the Blades.
Marcus Pacheco draws in for Medicine Hat for the first time this series and since March 5 (lower-body injury). Liam Ruck, who played only a few shifts on Wednesday, is out.
