The Score - Rebels/Ice

The Score – Red Deer 3 – Kootenay 1

What Happened – Rebels goaltender Darcy Kuemper weathered the storm Kootenay threw at the Rebels in the first period. His teammates did the rest in the second and third.

The Hits – Three devastating hits were thrown on this night. Brayden McNabb pasted Willie Coetzee in the first against the boards while Hayden Rintoul caught Landon Ferraro with his head down coming across the neutral zone that rocked the NHL Draft prospect. He would rebound nicely, however… In the third Brennan Wray caught Ice D James Martin behind the net with another great hit.

The Goals – Andrew Bailey managed to corral a bouncing puck inside the blueline with less than twenty seconds left in the first period. He found Max Reinhart on the wide circle who in turn found Dominic Pacovsky for the pretty tap-in… Landon Ferraro, fully recovered from the big hit by Rintoul in the first period, burst off the left wing in on Todd Mathews and roofed his 33rd to tie the game at one… Three minutes into the third period Rebel d-man David Archer fires a wrist shot at the Ice net that Adam Kambeitz deflects past Mathews… Ferraro would intercept a bad pass and put his 34th into an open net to seal the win.

The Wrong Call – This was a good, well-officiated hockey game but for the Rebels they got hosed twice. Once in the first period when Cody Esposito was high-sticked in the neutral zone – nothing out of the ordinary though Esposito was none too happy about the missed call – and then in the second when Brennan Wray was called for slashing. One problem though, it was Wray’s stick who was broke in half by Dominic Pacovsky on the play. Somehow Wray got the gate.

The Turning Point – The horn for the second period; somehow a different team emerged from the dressing room after dominating the Rebels for 20 minutes to open the game.

The Warrior – Rebels d-man Justin Weller took a puck in the face off an Ian Barteaux shot in the first period. After receiving seven stitches he returned in the third with a full-face mask.

KIJHL Update – The Kimberley Dynamiters took their first round quarter-final series over the Creston Valley Thunder 4-1 with a 3-2 double OT win Monday at the Johnny Bucyk Arena in Creston. The Fernie Ghostriders, who did the same to the Golden Rockets in the first round, will host the Dynamiters to begin the second round best-of-seven playoff. I’d update the Okanagan Division of the KIJHL but after changing the format to some sort of bastardized version of a round-robin tournament, I still can’t figure it out. The link is over there on the left. Oh, and I stand corrected for an earlier report from last week. Lethbridge Hurricane list player Matt Wilkins, who had a goal and an assist in Kimberley’s Game three win, isn’t going to the NCAA’s University of Alaska at Anchorage. That’s Cranbrook product Sam Mellor, a 16-year-old rookie with the Nitros. Wilkins hasn’t yet said if the Hurricanes are in his plans.

The Crowd – 3455

KNA Three Stars
1. G Darcy Kuemper – showed he’s the top NHL goaltending prospect in the Dub
2. D Colin Archer – Rebel captain was solid
3. LW Dominic Pacovsky – Goal, lots of chances.

What it means – Kootenay falls to 31-27-2-6; 70 points and sixth in the conference. One point up on the Lethbridge Hurricanes and missed a chance to put them into the playoffs with six games to go. This one was their game-in-hand to put space between them and the Hurricanes and they couldn’t do it. Kootenay is six points back of the Swift Current Broncos for fifth and seven back of the Tigers for fourth. Both are now just about out of reach.

Up Next – The return bill goes Friday night in Red Deer.



Game Summary:

Rebels 3 @ Ice 1

CRANBROOK, B.C. - Western Hockey League summary for regular season game between the Red Deer Rebels and the Kootenay Ice; March 3, 2009.
Adam Kambeitz deflected a wrist shot from the point that stood-up as the game-winner as the Red Deer Rebels beat the Kootenay Ice 3-1 in WHL action Tuesday.
Kootenay opened the scoring on a pretty tic-tac-toe scoring play as Dominic Pacovsky buried a Max Reinhart cross-ice feed to give the Ice a 1-0 in the dying seconds of the period. Landon Ferraro tied it for the Rebels on a burst of speed that beat Ice goaltender Todd Mathews glove-side 3:31 into the second period. In the third Kambeitz would deflect a shot past Mathews for the game-winner with his 3rd of the season. Ferraro would seal the win with an empty-net goal in the last minute.
Darcy Kuemper was terrific in the nets for the Rebels, stopping 33 of 34 shots while Todd Mathews stopped 20 of 22 shots in taking the loss.

First Period
1. Kootenay, Pacovsky 8 (Reinhart, Bailey) 19:42 (pp)

Penalties -- Egener RD (high-sticking) 6:53, Coetzee RD (high-sticking) 18:13.

Second Period
2. Red Deer, Ferraro 33 (Esposito, Kovisto) 3:31

Penalties -- Wray RD (tripping) 0:18, Esposito RD Barteaux Ktn (roughing) 7:29, Wray Rd (slashing) 11:17, Ismond Ktn (charging) 16:54.

Third Period
3. Red Deer, Kambeitz 3 (Ferguson, Archer) 3:28
4. Red Deer, Ferraro 34 19:32 (en)


Penalties -- Frere Ktn (interference) 1:05.


Shots on goal by
Kootenay: 16 10 8 - 34
Red Deer: 5 10 8 - 23

Goal -- Kootenay: Todd Mathews (L, 13-16-0-3) Red Deer: Darcy Kuemper (W, 18-22-2-7)

Power Plays -- (goals-chances)
Kootenay: 1-4
Red Deer: 0-2

Referee -- Trevor Hanson, Pat Smith. Linesman -- Matthew Barker, Jim Maniago.

Attendance -- 3455 (4264)

Scratches --
Kootenay: Nathan Lieuwen (concussion - indefinite), Tyler Vanscourt (shoulder - week-to-week), Dustin Sylvester (ankle - 3-5 weeks), Steele Boomer (concussion - week-to-week).
Red Deer: Carter Smith (knee - indefinite), Cass Mappin (foot - indefinite), Steve Oursov (concussion - indefinite).

Summary courtesy Jeff Bromley of the Kootenay NewsAdvertiser