Hurricanes 3 Rebels 0

Sixty eight shots. One goal.

What a weekend.

For the most part, the Red Deer Rebels couldn’t be faulted for their work ethic in a pair of weekend Western Hockey League home contests, but their scoring touch . . . well, that’s another story.

The Rebels were not necessarily cut-and-dried the better team in Saturday’s meeting with the Lethbridge Hurricanes as was the case in an unfortunate 3-1 loss to the Edmonton Oil Kings 24 hours earlier, but it was hard to argue that they were second best, except for the final result — a 3-0 loss to the visitors before an announced gathering of 5,472 at the Centrium.

Red Deer didn’t create much even strength, but neither did the ‘Canes. The deciding factor was a Rebels power play that was zero-for-six and managed just a single shot during a two-man advantage for 1:41 in the middle frame.

“We didn’t seem to get inside a whole bunch five on five, but our power play . . . we had four of them in the second period and we had to get something on it,” said Rebels head coach Jesse Walllin. “We had a few opportunities where we got set up and got the puck to the net and created some stuff down low, but overall we didn’t get enough pucks to the net.

“Our urgency was not there and our puck retrieval was not good enough. We dumped the puck in and had opportunities to get it back, but we were slow to get there. We were soft on the battles and that was probably the difference in the game.”

Meanwhile, Red Deer native Colton Sceviour scored once and assisted on the other two Lethbridge goals. Sceviour shoveled a bouncing puck past Rebels netminder Darcy Kuemper in the first period, put the puck on Zach Boychuk’s stick for a second-period goal from the low slot and assisted on Carter Ashton’s empty-netter late in the game.

“We needed a big effort from him and we need that from a lot of these guys,” said Lethbridge head coach Michael Dyck. “We’re starting to roll now with wins in three of our last four games and we’ve needed those (veteran) guys to step up.”

Sceviour elected to give the credit to Hurricanes netminder Juha Metsola, who made 31 saves for his third shutout of the season, and the team’s penalty killers.

“Our goaltender played huge and our penalty killers were great. That’s pretty much what it came down to. They gave us a chance to win,” said the 19-year-old Dallas Stars prospect. “We’re winning games now and we’re starting to gain confidence, and with that I think we’re starting to turn our season around.”

The Rebels were outshot 15-8 in the opening frame, but carried the play in the middle stanza with the four Lethbridge penalties and dominated the final frame. But it was all in vain.

“We maybe gave up too many shots in the third period (the margin was 12-4) but I thought we played well defensively and took advantage of our (scoring) opportunities,” said Dyck. “But our penalty killing definitely won us the hockey game tonight. We did a pretty good job of not allowing them to set up on the power play.”

Added Wallin: “We played with a real sense of urgency in the third period. The guys were really fired up and very aggressive. We outshot them tonight (31-25 overall) and didn’t give them much in the third period, and I thought we had some quality opportunities.

“Maybe not as many as we’d like, but we certainly had our chances.”

However . . .

“The bottom line is we played two games on the weekend and scored one goal. You’re not going to win that way.”

The Rebels host the Moose Jaw Warriors and Swift Current Broncos next Friday and Saturday.

Contact Greg Meachem at gmeachem@reddeeradvocate.com