Rebels all business in 5-2 win over Blades in Game 2

Red Deer leads WHL Eastern Conference semi 2-0

The Rebels celebrate a goal from captain Jayden Grubbe (#9)

Poised, businesslike and hard-working.

It was type performance one comes to expect out of the Red Deer Rebels when they are at their best under the ownership of Brent Sutter. Sutter serves as the team’s general manager and president, while the performance of the players is under the tutelage of veteran head coach Steve Konowalchuk, who currently has the Rebels playing up to a lofty traditional standard.

On Sunday playing before 6,156 spectators at the SaskTel Centre, the Rebels built a 4-0 lead and downed the host Saskatoon Blades 5-2 in Game 2 of a WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series holding a 20-16 edge in shots on goal. With the win, the Rebels now hold a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven set. They took Game 1 of the series 3-1 on Friday.

The Blades clear away the puck during a net scramble.

Games 3 and 4 are set for Tuesday and Wednesday respectively at 7 p.m. both nights at the Peavey Mart Centrium in Red Deer.

On Sunday, the Rebels were keenly focused on their systems play and pretty much suffocated the life out of the Blades and the enthusiasm of the host side’s fans in the building. Red Deer clogged up the centre ice zone taking away the Blades tendency to go for stretch passes. Saskatoon found it tough sledding to go up ice.

In the defensive zone, the Rebels played with poise and had good spacing. The Blades players were often kept to the outside and seemed to second guess what they wanted to do when it came time to pass the puck.

Ben King had a goal and three assists for the Rebels on Sunday.

In the offensive zone, the Rebels set up a strong forecheck that kept the Blades pinned for numerous stretches in their own zone. When the Rebels had the puck in the offensive zone, they moved it around with confidence and shot it with purpose once it was in a prime scoring area.

Seeing how well the Rebels played shouldn’t come as a surprise from a club that is coached by Konowalchuk. Konowalchuk had a lengthy NHL career as left-winger with the Washington Capitals and Colorado Avalanche from 1992 to 2006, and he served as the head coach of the Seattle Thunderbirds for six seasons from 2011 to 2017. He guided the Thunderbirds to a WHL championship in his final season with the club in 2016-17.

Jhett Larson had a goal and two assists for the Rebels on Sunday.

Following that WHL title, Konowalchuk moved on to the NHL as an assistant coach with the Anaheim Ducks in 2017-18 and served as a scout for the New York Rangers from 2018 to 2021. He was brought back to the WHL by Sutter on June 8, 2021 to serve as the head coach of the Rebels.

Konowalchuk is the type of bench boss Sutter had been looking to pass the head coaching roll to after holding that job title for the majority of the time he owned the Rebels since buying them in 1999. Konowalchuk’s teams traditionally play with good structure, discipline, poise and tenacity, which made him a perfect fit to be the Rebels head coach.

Jayden Grubbe had a goal and two assists for the Rebels on Sunday.

On Sunday against the Blades, the Rebels showed how strong they can be when they are focused on being their best. Even with their strong outing on Sunday, the Rebels are always looking for ways to improve and get better.

The opening 20 minutes started in a more tight checking fashion as the two sides were tied 4-4 in the shots on goal department.

Early in the second, Rebels captain Jayden Grubbe had a great chance to score close in on the right side of the Saskatoon net, but he was robbed by the glove hand of Blades netminder Austin Elliott. That was just a sign of the avalanche of momentum to come.

Hunter Mayo chases down a loose puck for the Rebels.

The Rebels broke through on the scoreboard at the 7:53 mark of the second. While working on the power play, Grubbe and defenceman Mats Lindgren got the puck over to star 20-year-old left-winger Ben King, who was positioned above the left faceoff dot.

King took his time and roofed home a power-play marker to give the Rebels a 1-0 lead. After that tally, the Rebels were off and running.

Just seconds later, Rebels centre Craig Armstrong drove a shot from the front of the Saskatoon net off the crossbar. The visitors didn’t dwell on the near miss.

The Rebels struck again 1:49 after King’s goal. On a rush into the Saskatoon zone, right-winger Jhett Larson and King combined to get the puck to star import offensive-defenceman Christoffer Sedoff, who was speeding down the left wing. Sedoff blew home a shot to the top right corner of the Saskatoon goal to give the Rebels a 2-0 lead.

Christoffer Sedoff had a goal for the Rebels on Sunday.

With 7:50 remaining in the second, Grubbe won a board battle in the left corner of the Saskatoon zone. He proceeded to get the puck to Larson at the top of the left faceoff circle. Larson fired home a shot to give the Rebels a 3-0 lead.

After that goal was scored, you could hear a pin drop in the Blades home rink.

Follow that Rebels tally, the Blades pulled Elliott. Elliott stopped 9-of-12 shots fired his way to take the setback in the Saskatoon net. Ethan Chadwick turned away 4-of-6 shots playing the rest of the way in relief.

The Rebels kept on coming in the third. At the 3:38 mark of the frame, rookie left-winger Carson Birnie fired home a midrange shot to give the visitors a 4-0 advantage.

Carson Birnie had a goal for the Rebels on Sunday.

The Blades got on the scoreboard at the 9:48 mark of the third with a power-play goal from star left-winger Brandon Lisowsky to cut the Red Deer lead to 4-1.

Grubbe added a goal just under three minutes later to round out the game’s scoring to give the Rebels a 5-1 edge. With 5.9 seconds remaining in the third, Blades 19-year-old defenceman Charlie Wright scored on a four-on-three power play to round out the 5-2 final in favour of the Red Deer side.

The Rebels forward unit of King, Grubbe and Larson had a banner night. King finished with a goal and three assists, while Grubbe and Larson each posted a goal and two assists.

HC Steve Konowalchuk has the Rebels playing in strong form.

Blades star centre Trevor Wong picked up helpers on both Saskatoon goals.

Kyle Kelsey stopped 14 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Rebels.

Going into the series, few would have expected the Rebels to win the first two contests on the road in Saskatoon. The Blades finished fourth in the overall WHL regular season standings with a 48-15-4-1 record and were rated 10^th in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings.

The Rebels finished fifth in the overall WHL standings and topped the Central Division with a 43-19-3-3 mark.

The Blades took three out of the four regular season encounters between the two sides. In the two regular season clashes played at the SaskTel Centre, the Blades claimed a 6-2 win on January 7 and a 5-2 triumph on March 1.

Trevor Wong had a pair of assists for the Blades on Sunday.

In the post-season, it would have been viewed as big for the Rebels to get a split in the first two games in Saskatoon. Red Deer’s 3-1 win in Game 1 could have gone either way. For the Rebels to follow up with an impressive 5-2 win in Game 2 on Sunday, it was head turning.

To make matters worse for the Blades, their captain and star overage offensive-defenceman Aidan De La Gorgendiere didn’t play the third period. The Blades have also been without steady 20-year-old defenceman Blake Gustafson for the first two games of the series with an undisclosed injury.

Saskatoon has the potential to get back in the series. The Blades lost the first two games of their first round series at home to Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats before rallying for a 4-3 series victory.

The Rebels celebrate their Game 2 win on Sunday.

With that said, the Rebels are a different beast. They are sound defensively and benefit from having a touch more experience than the Pats had.

On the surface, it is going to be much bigger challenge for the Blades to comeback in the series against the Rebels than it was to rally against the Pats.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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