The Red Deer Rebels found their stride on the road Thursday night, pulling away for a convincing 4-1 preseason win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes at VisitLethbridge.com Arena. After dropping a pair of tight contests to open the exhibition schedule, Red Deer controlled the pace, generated consistent pressure, and converted their chances while the Hurricanes struggled to generate much sustained offence in their third straight preseason defeat. The two clubs then played five minutes of “no return” three-on-three overtime as a pilot project for a potential change to the regular-season overtime format; under the new rules, once a team gained possession in the attacking zone a player could not deliberately carry, pass, or shoot the puck back outside the blueline. Chace Turchak scored for the Rebels in the final minute of that extra session. Unfortunately there were no easily available highlights of the goals without clipping YouTube videos, and I didn’t feel like doing that lol.Rebels scratches for the game included defencemen Noah Chadi, Zeb Lindgren (New York Rangers camp), Kalder Varga (Colorado Avalanche camp), Kohen Lodge, Beckett Hamilton (Avalanche), and goaltender Matthew Kondro. With Thursday’s victory the Rebels now sit 1-1-1-0 in preseason play.
Nolan Schmidt made it a 1-0 game for the Rebels at 13:19 of the first period. The assists on the goal went to Grayden Peterson and Owen Dewitt.–Nolan Schmidt got the Rebels on the board first by driving hard to the crease and stuffing the puck in for his opening goal of the preseason.
Owen Berge responded back for the Hurricanes at 15:40 of the first period while Lethbridge was on the Power Play. The helpers on the goal went to Jake Evans and Nathan Maloney.– I thought Berge aged out a few seasons ago 🤣Hes been around a long time.
Shots on goal in the first period were 11-6 for the Rebels
Poul Andersen gave the Rebels the lead just 51 seconds into the second period with the assist on the goal going to Cameron Kuzma.– Poul Andersen notched his second preseason goal in the opening minute of the second period, slipping a deke past Hurricanes starter Leif Oaten.
Patrick Sopiarz made it a 3-1 game for the Rebels just a short 19 seconds later at 1:10 of the second period. Assists on the goal went to Luke Jamieson and Jake Missura.
Shots on goal in the second period were 14-6 for the Rebels
Cameron Kuzma made it a 4-1 game at 10:18 of the third period. The assists on the goal went to Hermantown, Minnesota native Paxson Madil and Poul Andersen.- Cameron Kuzma made it 4-1 midway through the third, finishing a feed from Paxson Madill with a smooth touch for his second goal in two games.
Shots on goal in the third period were 8-6 for the Rebels. The Rebels outshot the Hurricanes 33-18 in the game.
For the Rebels Nathan Salisbury stopped 7 of the 8 shots he faced. He was replaced by Peyton Shore half way through the game. Shore stopped all 10 shots he faced for the split win for the Rebels. For Lethbridge Leif Oaten stopped 27 of the 31 shots he faced. He was replaced by Koen Cleaver with just 10 minutes left in the game. Cleaver stopped both the 2 shots he faced.
Three Stars of the game were 1) Cameron Kuzma 2) Poul Andersen 3) Owen Berge
Attendance in Lethrbridge was not mentioned on the whl site.
Rebels next game is Friday September 11th against the Edmonton Oil Kings in Red Deer.
