RED DEER, AB – The Western Hockey League champions run at the 2016 MasterCard Memorial Cup is over.
An overtime goal by Evan Polei gave the Red Deer Rebels a 2-1 victory over the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings in the final round robin game Wednesday night at the Enmax Centrium.
Polei converted a feed from linemate Conner Bleackley and beat Wheat Kings netminder Jordan Papirny glove side to end the Wheat Kings season.
“I’ve never had this before,” Polei joked as reporters gathered.
“It’s a surreal moment,” Polei said. “It’s my first ever overtime goal and the biggest goal of my career.”
Bleackley said the game-winner came after the veteran forward held the puck before making the cross-slot feed to Polei on the right side.
“The puck bobbled a couple of times, I think it hit my foot twice, and I knew I had a lefty opened up on the other side,” Bleackley said. “I waited a second to get Papirny out a bit and Pols did a good job getting it upstairs.”
Tim McGauley got the Wheat Kings on the board midway through the second period when his shot from the left circle beat Red Deer goaltender Rylan Toth.
A late goal by Red Deer’s Adam Musil would push the game to overtime, setting the stage for Polei’s goal.
“You can’t even describe it because we lost in five games to those guys,” Polei said. “And for them to come into this tournament and go 0-3 and we’re the ones to send them home was an absolutely great feeling.”
“They eliminated us in the league and now we had a chance to end their season and we did it, it’s an awesome feeling,” said defenceman Colton Bobyk, a Red Deer native.
The Wheat Kings played the game without high-scoring forward Jayce Hawryluk, who missed the game due what was thought to be an injury.
Wheat Kings General Manager/Coach Kelly McCrimmon didn’t comment when asked why Hawryluk didn’t play in the game.
Toth made 33 saves for Red Deer.
Papirny made 30 saves for Brandon.
“Right from warmups I felt really good and I was seeing the puck really well the whole game,” Papirny said. “The guys did an awesome job tonight of eliminating their chances and keeping them to the outside. At the end of the day it comes down to one shot. It’s a tough pill to swallow.”
McCrimmon said that throughout the WHL playoffs, the feeling was that “we weren’t going to be denied.”
“We had much higher hopes coming into the tournament,” said McCrimmon. “The three teams that have played the best are the three teams still playing.
“Somewhere between Seattle (in the league final) and Red Deer we lost our mojo,” McCrimmon added. “We never got going anywhere near the level we had it going in the playoffs.”
With a 2-1 record, the Rebels now head to Friday’s semifinal game against the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.
With the score tied at one through regulation time, the Rebels were assured a spot in the semifinal while Brandon needed a win to get into the tie-breaker game against Rouyn-Noranda but Rebels General Manager/Coach Brent Sutter said the focus going into overtime was to get the win.
“I told the kids after the third period ‘I know we’re in the semifinal game but let’s go after this and let’s go get a win,’” Sutter said. “We knew Brandon was going to make a push because of their situation but we did a great job in overtime and went right after it.”
The Huskies finished the round robin with a 1-2 record, beating Brandon on the second day of the tournament before losses to Red Deer and London.
The Rebels, thanks to a round robin win over the Huskies, will be the home team and have final change in the game.
The London Knights, who won the Ontario Hockey League title, earned a spot in Sunday’s championship game thanks to a perfect 3-0 round robin record. The Knights outscored its opponents 20-5 in the three games.
Tournament Notes: On Tuesday the Canadian Hockey League announced the implementation of the Talk Today program across each of its three member leagues.
Already implemented in the OHL, the program sees each of the CHL’s member teams teamed up with a mental health coach. The coach will be a person that players and team staff can contact when needing help with any sort of mental health issue.
“Young people can face tremendous stress and pressure and become susceptible to mental health challenges just like everyone else,” said Canadian Mental Health Association CEO Camille Quenneville, Talk Today will provide education about mental health and suicide and encourage players and team staff to speak openly about these serious issues.”
In what has become an annual event at the MasterCard Memorial Cup, Sherwin-Williams was on hand at the Aspire Special Needs Resource Centre in Red Deer on Wednesday.
The day saw a number of local paint companies provide the site, which works with families in the area that have children with special needs, with updates around the facility. The centre has been run in the city of Red Deer since 1985.