It was a successful, if strangely quiet, end to the preseason Friday night as the Red Deer Rebels doubled up the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings 4-2 at a notably empty Marchant Crane Centrium, where the boards sat bare of the usual advertisements and gave the building an almost unfinished feel. The Rebels earned their second win in as many nights after Thursday’s 4-1 victory in Lethbridge, closing exhibition play at 2-1-1-0 and heading into the regular season with momentum. Following regulation they stayed on the ice for a ‘no return’ three-on-three overtime pilot the WHL is testing; once a team gained the attacking zone, no player could deliberately carry, pass or shoot the puck back outside the blueline, and Cameron Kuzma scored in the opening minute of the extra session.Highlights from the night have been unusually hard to clip and share on YouTube, an issue many hope is simply a preseason quirk rather than a lasting problem with the league’s affiliation.
Rebels scratches included Zeb Lindgren (New York Rangers camp), Beckett Hamilton and Kalder Varga (Colorado Avalanche camp), Luke Jamieson, Nolan Wolitski and Peyton Shore.
Kuzma finished as Red Deer’s preseason scoring leader with five points (two goals, three assists), followed by Poul Andersen and Paxson Madill with four apiece. The goaltending tandem posted a combined 2.25 goals-against average and .917 save percentage while the power play went 1-for-10 (10 percent) and the penalty kill erased 13 of 16 chances (81.3 percent).
Paxson Madill opened up the scoring for the Rebels making it a 1-0 game at 15:28 of the first period. The assist on the goal went to Jake Missura.- Red Deer rookie Paxson Madill got the scoring started late in the opening period, beating Edmonton goalie Ethan Simcoe with a backhand deke.
Shots on goal in the first period were 15-6 for the Rebels
Former Calgary Hitman and Langdon, Alberta native 20 year old Luc Trevors makes it a 2-0 game for the Rebels at 5:45 of the second perriod with an unassisted goal.–Luc Trevors stretched the lead to 2-0 with a highlight-reel solo rush, capping it with a toe drag and a sharp shot past Simcoe — his second goal of the preseason.
Shots on goal in the second period were 13-9 for the Rebels
North Vancouver, BC native Josh Lee got the Oil Kings on the board 50 seconds into the third period with an unassisted goal.– Edmonton broke through against Rebels netminder Matthew Kondro just seconds into the third period, with defenceman Josh Lee finding the back of the net.
Graeme Pickering made it a 3-1 game at 4:12 of the third period. The assists on the goal went to Paxson Madill and Cameron Kuzma.–Graeme Pickering put Red Deer back up by two just over three minutes later, stepping into the slot and tucking in a backhand for his first goal of the preseason.
Jensen Marsh gets the Oil Kings within one at 5:27 of the third period. The assists on the goal went to Cage Smith.-Just 1:15 later Jensen Marsh fired home a shot from the right faceoff circle to make it a one goal game once again.
Patrick Sopiarz made it a 4-3 game when he fired it into the empty net at 18:53 unassisted.
Shots on goal in the third period were 10-8 for the Oil Kings. The Rebels outshot the Oil Kings 36-25 in the game.
Matthew Kondro stopped 23 of the 25 shots that he faced for the win for the Rebels. For the Oil Kings Ethan Simcoe stopped 32 of the 35 shots that he faced.
Three Stars of the game not known
Attendance in Red Deer was unknown
Rebels next game is Friday September 18th when the face the Hitmen in Calgary. Their next home game is the next night also against the Calgary Hitmen
