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Billy Blade
02-11-2005, 02:26 PM
Source: http://www.reddeeradvocate.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=107&cat=40&id=373404&more=

Rebels outworked
Feb 10 2005

By greg meachem
Advocate staff

Tigers 5 Rebels 3

The Red Deer Rebels have come unglued.
Normally held together by a solid work ethic and an obligation to playing a sound defensive style, the Rebels were lacking in both categories on Wednesday while falling 5-3 to the Medicine Hat Tigers in a WHL game witnessed by 5,948 fans at the Centrium.
The contest wasn't quite a mirror image of Saturday's 4-1 loss to the visiting Kootenay Ice, a game in which the Rebels worked up a good sweat but were mistake-prone, but the fact Red Deer came up short - again - against one of the league powers was troubling.
"It comes down to mental toughness. We have to start coming together as a team here," said captain Colin Fraser, one of the few bright spots for the home club.
"We were playing pretty well but the last two games we got our butts kicked pretty easily by two good teams. These games were measuring sticks for us and obviously we have work to do.
"You have to beat the best teams in the league and we lost to the two of the best. Our top players have to start stepping up."
As was the case Saturday, the Rebels were their own worst enemies, giving up all five goals on glaring defensive miscues. They also lost more than their share of one-on-one disputes.
The visitors, with netminder Kevin Nastiuk standing tall, survived an early Red Deer power play and then struck for three unanswered goals in the first seven minutes and 16 seconds.
"They got, what, three goals on four shots (five, actually)? Those were just bad plays in our zone," said Sutter, who replaced starting netminder Andrew Leslie with Gerry Festa following the Tigers' third marker. "The last two games we've made way too many mistakes and there hasn't been enough commitment to our system."
Sutter was particularly peeved with Medicine Hat's fifth goal, a short-handed, empty-netter scored by Clarke MacArthur from centre ice with 3:25 remaining.
"Their empty-net goal showed a lot about our commitment to the hard price you have to pay to win games at this time of the year," said the Rebels boss. "When one guy can outmuscle four of our forwards and get the puck out of our zone and score into an empty net, it tells you everything. It tells you about our commitment and the work ethic that some of these guys have.
"Again, our top players, except for Fraser and (Roman) Wick, who was OK, were brutal. That includes (Ashton) Rome, (Ty) Morris, (Mikko) Kuukka and (Dion) Phaneuf. Festa came in and played well for us, but Leslie was awful. It's not good enough for this time of the year, it's unacceptable."
While the Rebels were able to fight back from the large deficit and close the gap to 3-2 after 40 minutes, Fraser discounted the notion that they were deserving of a better result.
"I don't really think we ever had it put together. We were down three-cob after eight minutes," he said. "Our play is unacceptable right now. Our top players aren't our top players, myself included.
"We have letters on our jerseys, we're older players and we're expected to lead by example. We're expected to be the go-to guys and we haven't been the last two games."
With the loss, the Rebels are seven points back of the first-place Tigers in the ultra-competitive Central Division. Worse yet, Lethbridge and Calgary also prevailed Wednesday and moved five and three points, respectively, ahead of Red Deer.
Darren Helm, with a pair, David Schlemko and Kevin Undershute also scored for the Tigers. Wick, Fraser (both on the power play) and Ted Vandermeer, with 90 seconds left, replied for Red Deer.
Tiger coach Willie Desjardins suggested his club's quick start was somewhat lucky.
"We were fortunate, the puck was bouncing for us tonight. We got some breaks and it seemed like we capitalized on most of our chances," he said.
The Rebels won't be feeling lucky this morning.
"Boot camp, here at 6:30 a.m.," Sutter vowed.