Rebs Force Game 7

-Medicine Hat News

Rebs force Game 7 showdown


Shootout style games were suppose to favour the highly skilled Medicine Hat Tigers.
Apparently, the Red Deer Rebels didn’t get the message.
The Rebels claimed Game 6 of the WHL best-of-seven quarter-final series 6-5 over the Tigers Friday in Red Deer. The Red Deer win ties up the series 3-3 and sends it to a deciding Game 7 Tuesday at 7 p.m. at The Arena.
“I am sure it was an opportunity lost,” said Tigers winger Derek Dorsett. “We just got off to a bad start. We got off our game plan.
“We fought back hard. It is hard to comeback in this barn. When you are playing catch up hockey, it is hard.”
The Rebels have won two of the last three games of this series.
In both wins, there has been no shortage of goals as Red Deer took Game 4 on March 28 by a 6-4 count.
“I guess you kind of get on a role some nights," said Rebels head coach Brent Sutter, whose team usually wins with strong defence.
“You look at the three games we have won, we scored six goals in all three games.”
The Rebels stormed out to a 3-0 lead in the first period. The lead was built due to Red Deer’s strong effort and some brain cramping among the Tigers defencemen.
Rebel forward Karey Pieper scored twice and Brett Sutter had a single in the Rebels‚ surge.
“We came out and we lost it in the first period I thought,” said Tigers centre Darren Helm. “If we would have come out off the bat, we would have had a chance to win this game.”
The Tigers came to life early in the second. While killing a penalty, Helm created a short-handed breakaway for himself taking the puck away from the Red Deer point men. He buried a shot five-hole on Rebels goaltender James Reimer just 1:47 into the frame.
During a net scramble just under two minutes later, Tigers right-winger Jerrid Sauer scored on his team’s second shot of the frame to cut the gap to 3-2.
The Rebels called timeout after the second goal in order to curve Medicine Hat’s momentum. The second frame ended with a couple more swings with Red Deer going up 4-2 before leaving the period with a 5-3 lead. Dorsett had Medicine Hat’s tally in that flurry, while Ted Vandermeer and Martin Hanzal replied for the Rebels.
Medicine Hat tied the game 5-5 early in the third with two power-play goals on separate five-on-three chances. Daine Todd and Kris Russell netted the power-play goals.
Hanzal had the last laugh driving a point-shot blast top corner on Tigers goaltender Matt Keetley with 8:41 to play.
Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins was disappointed with all the goals his team gave up.
“We are better defensively than that, and we have to play better defensively the next game,” said Desjardins. “Red Deer is a good hockey team.
“They came back and battled. You just have to give them a lot of credit.”
Keetley made 29 saves suffering the loss in goal for Medicine Hat. Reimer turned away 20 shots in getting the win in goal for the Rebels.
In the four times these teams have met in the post-season over the last five years, this will be the third time the series goes to a Game 7.
”It is do or die,” said Dorsett. “It is going to be an intense game. It’s going to be physical.
“It’s going to be tough. We just have to get back to our game plan and see where that takes us.”
As for Sutter, he is comfortable with the situation his club is in.
“We weren’t suppose to be here," said Sutter. “They are the team that everyone expects to win.
“We played well there. There is no reason we can’t go back there and play well again.”