Rebels blank listless Wheat Kings

With the trade deadline looming, the lethargic Brandon Wheat Kings lost their third game in a row, falling 4-0 to the visiting Red Deer Rebels in Western Hockey League action at Assiniboine Credit Union Place on Wednesday.

Red Deer (12-20-2-2) received its goals from Matus Lisy, Ty Coupland, Kalder Varga and Talon Brigley, with Peyton Shore of Winnipeg making 35 saves for his second career WHL shutout.

“It was a rough night, there’s no denying it,” defenceman Gio Pantelas said. “Giving up 40 shots against a team as low as them, we really can’t have that and can’t do it again. It’s something we have to look back on and we have to improve.

“We’ve had a lot of close games against lower teams like these, including this team previously, and it’s something we have to work on. We’re in it once it comes to good teams, but for some reason we let off the pedal and think it will be easy games and play softer ones … Hopefully we can fix it as fast as possible because it’s going to be a tight race.”

The Wheat Kings dropped to 22-15-1-0 in front of a crowd of 3,060.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said his club’s early opportunity certainly didn’t signify what lay ahead.

“I just thought we were flat from the get-go,” Murray said. “We had a chance early right off the first 10 seconds and then it was just kind of one of those nights. We might have been here until tomorrow to try to score. We were on our heels and played slow and our execution was sloppy. You usually get what you put into this game and we probably deserve what we got.”

Luke Mistelbacher nearly scored on Shore six seconds into the game when the netminder played the puck after it drifted in off the opening draw, with the overage forward almost bounced it in off him.

Both teams had multiple chances in the first eight minutes, and while Brandon had the better quality opportunities, Red Deer counted first when Lisy’s shot from the point was stopped by the blocker of Brandon goalie Jayden Kraus but bounced off a defender and in.

It was just the 10th time Red Deer has opened the scoring this season. They subsequently outshot Brandon 15-14 in the opening frame despite the Wheat Kings having more than three minutes of power-play time.

Brandon was fortunate to stay within a goal 11 minutes into the middle frame when Kraus made a save but the puck bounced over him and dangerously close to the goal-line. The play went back up the ice and the Wheat Kings goaltender was soon called on again, using his trapper to foil a Varga breakaway.

The Rebels went up two goals 14:26 into the middle frame on a sensational play by Coupland. On a one-on-one rush, Coupland used a toe-drag move to work past Grayson Burzynski and then beat Kraus to the high blocker side on the backhand.

Meanwhile, the Rebels did a sensational job of protecting their own goal, with four blocks on one shift as the Wheat Kings pressed.

The first 16 seconds of the third period was a pretty good microcosm of Brandon’s entire night. They gave up a good chance on their net and then failed to connect on a long pass as they exited the zone, resulting in an icing.

Then, with the teams playing four-on-four for a few minutes, the Wheat Kings made seven separate mistakes in a 30-second span and were fortunate none ended up in the back of their net.

Varga put the game away with the teams playing four-on-four again and 8:38 left when Cole Temple — who was making his Red Deer debut in Brandon after a trade from the Everett Silvertips — fed the winger as he tumbled to the ice. The Rebels salted it away with 4:18 left when Brigley finished up on a scrambled play.

It was a night of lost puck battles, mistakes, missed passes, bouncing pucks and fanned-on shot attempts.

“Some habits have crept into our game here,” Murray said. “Even the last game in Saskatoon. The one we lost at home we played really well and probably deserved better and then in Saskatoon we had the same kind of effort, but it was better than tonight. Tonight wasn’t very good. It’s up to us as individuals to be ready to play and perform to the best of your ability in your role.”

Kraus made 38 saves for the Wheat Kings. Both teams went 0-4 on the power play.

Red Deer head coach Marc Habscheid said it was a nice effort by his club, which has gotten younger at the trade deadline.

“It was pretty good,” Habscheid said. “I liked it obviously, 4-0. We added some skill but we played pretty good defensively too and our goaltender was good. It was nice. All of a sudden we’ve turned into one of the youngest teams in the league but I like our skill. We had to give up a lot but we got some young skill back and they played real well.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured D Merrek Arpin and F Easton Odut, plus healthy scratches F Gunnar Gleasman and D Nigel Boehm … Joby Baumuller led the Wheat Kings with six shots on net … The game took two hours, 24 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 35-29 … The trade deadline is this evening at 7 o’clock … Brandon hosts the Regina Pats on Saturday at 6 p.m.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com