The Rebels sweep away the Hurricanes 8-1 and claim their third straight win

It wasn’t long before Red Deer was on the board as Ben King (31st) added to his goal tally as leaders. Arshdeep Bains, now joint-leading the league on points with King, earned an assist on the power play marker at 3:11 for his 58th point of the year.

Dallon Melin (5th) increased the lead by 10:11 of the first with captain Jayden Grubbe assisting.

The teams then played most of the middle frame without much of significance happening.

At 13:46, Liam Keeler (18th) made the home team 3-0, Christoffer Sedoff got the helper.

Sedoff and King then teamed up to give Keeler (19th) his second of the night just over a minute later at 15:09. It was after that goal that Canes served Jared Picklyk, who had allowed four goals from 28 shots.

Then at 18:05 of the second period, King (32nd) beat substitute Harrison Meneghin to make it 5-0 after 40 minutes.

Unfortunately for Connor Ungar, a shutout was not to be as Logan Wormald (8′) scored on the power play just 48 seconds into the third goal.

But the rebels apparently took offense and scored not once, not twice, but three more times to end the game.

King (33′) scored the hat-trick, the first of his career, at 8:09 with assists for Jace Weir and Frantisek Formanek to make it 6-1.

Carter Anderson (7th) made it 7-1 (10:23) with assists for Blake Gustafson and Hunter Mayo.

Then Formanek (1st) scored outnumbered at 15:58 to make it 8:1. Sedoff had the assist. Formanek’s goal was the Rebels’ 6th shorty of the season (tie 3rd WHL) and second in as many games. It was also the first career target of the 2021 Western Hockey League import draft first-round pick since he came over from Chrudim, Czech Republic.

Red Deer and Lethbridge were 39-39 in the shooting department on Saturday night. Red Deer went 2/3 man advantage while the Canes went 1/4.

Connor Ungar (14-5-1-0) improves to 2.27 GAA and 0.918 SV%. Picklyk (5-4-0-0), drawn after Red Deer’s fourth goal, took the loss. Meneghin stopped seven of eleven shots with relief.

Red Deer won the three stars:

First Star: Ben King (3G, 1A, 8 shots, 12/19 FOW) >> T-1. in WHL in points (58), 1st in goals (33)
Second Star: Liam Keeler (2G, 10/20 FOW)
Third Star: Arshdeep Bains (2A) >> T-1. in WHL in points (58), 1st in assists (39)

Next up for the Rebels is their third game in three nights Sunday at 6 p.m. in Medicine Hat. The show begins live on 106.7 REWIND Radio at 5:50 p.m.