Wheat Kings 5 Rebels 3

BRANDON, Man. — The Red Deer Rebels were one of the few teams that could say they had the Brandon Wheat Kings number this season.

Prior to Wednesday night the Rebels had won all three meetings they had this season. That streak came to an end, however, as the WHL’s Eastern Conference leading Wheat Kings edged out a 5-3 win.

“They were a pretty determined hockey team tonight,” said Rebels head coach Jesse Wallin of the Wheat Kings’ performance.

“The were really committed defensively and they came out hard at us in the first period . . . They just seemed to have a step on us today. They are such a good transition team with a whole lot of speed and skill up front.”

The Rebels were coming off a 3-2 shootout win the night before in Regina, but Wallin was not about to use the difficult road trip as an excuse for getting beat.

“That’s part of playing in this league and we are not going to use that as an excuse,” said Wallin. “It’s about mental toughness and finishing a way. I don’t think we played poorly, we just didn’t play as well as we could and as well as we needed to tonight. ”

The biggest play of the game came 3:13 in the second period with the Wheat Kings already up 1-0, Shayne Wiebe scored a shorthanded goal for the home team off the rush as Rebels goalie Kraymer Barnstable was being taken out by another Wheat King. No call was made for goalie interference, much to Wallin’s chagrin.

“It was a tough goal to give up,” said Wallin. “It was kind of a questionable call I thought. They went in off the rush and pushed Barney into the net. It depends on the night of the week — we had a game three weeks ago in Kootenay where we had three interference penalties in one game for the same play and tonight it’s OK.

“It’s a little bit frustrating but at the same time it’s an opportunity we shouldn’t have given up.”

The Rebels didn’t give up and battled back.

John Persson finally got Red Deer on the board at 14:36 of the middle frame with his seventh goal of the season. The momentum was short lived as Jay Feher responded for Brandon on the power play at 16:51 then Matt Calvert made it a 4-1 gap at 18:47.

Turner Elson kept it a game by managing to score for the Rebels with 28 seconds in left in the stanza.

That goal was crucial because Willie Coetzee made it a one-goal game with his 25th of the season at the 14-19 mark of the third period. But that was as close as the Rebels would come and Calvert put the game on ice with an empty.

“We clawed our way back in the third period to give ourselves a chance, but at the end of the day it just wasn’t enough,” said Wallin.

Barnstable (9-3-0-1) finished the game with 34 saves including 16 in the first period. He was playing in place of Darcy Kuemper who got the start the night before.

“Barney has played well for us and he won the last game in here and we want to keep him going,” said Wallin. “He’s played well and he deserves an opportunity to play here as well. Four games on the trip and he was going to play in one of them, and I thought this was as good as any.”

Jacob De Serres (15-6-0-1) made 27 saves for the win.

Despite the loss Red Deer holds onto sixth place in the Eastern Conference with 62 points. Prince Albert moved to within two points of the Rebels with a 7-3 win over the Saskatoon Blades, while the Moose Jaw Warriors lost 2-1 to Kootenay and remains three points back.

The Rebels are off for the next couple of days before they continue their roadtrip in Moose Jaw on Friday at 6 p.m. and then finish it Saturday in Swift Current at 6:30 p.m.

“It’s no different than every game we’ve been in since November. It’s been a very tight race here for two months,” by Wallin. “Every game is big and they get a little bigger each night as we move along here.”