Day 5 at the Mac's - Rebels and Ref Run Roughshod

South Island Thunderbirds, December 30, 2008

It was absolutely black and white (with red trim).

The Red Deer Rebels players were head to toe in black with red numbers and white stripes on Tuesday while the referee was in his traditional striped shirt, black pants and red arm band.  Together, they smothered the South Island Thunderbirds for the entire first period and a fair chunk of the third on Tuesday at Calgary’s Father David Bauer Arena.  On the strength of no less than six power play goals, the rough and highly skilled Rebels cruised to an 8 – 1 victory over South Island in the final round robin game for both teams in the heavily stacked Pool 5 at the Mac’s tournament.

Red Deer came in to the game sporting a perfect 3 – 0 record leading up to Tuesday’s game so it wasn’t like the team needed help from the officials.  But referee Ashley Lockwood got started 10 seconds into the game and whistled the Thunderbirds for seven penalties in the first period alone, compared to one for the much more physical Rebels.  Those seven power plays and two more assessed at the start of the second period made the South Island end of the rink seem like a shooting gallery and led to four power play goals.  Along with the calls not made on more obvious infractions by the Rebels, the penalties turned the game into a complete debacle.  There is simply no other way to describe it.

Given that the Thunderbirds were coming off a great game against the equally strong Calgary Buffaloes (who are four point ahead of the Rebels in the Alberta Midget Hockey League) the day before, there was no reason to expect this game to be a mismatch.  Just the opposite in fact, with Brandon Glover starting in goal again and sporting a scintillating .942 tournament save percentage after tough games against Calgary and Notre Dame, this was expected to be another great opportunity for South Island to challenge a tough Alberta team and show its competitiveness.  Tragically, the continuous run of penalties saw the game quickly evolve into a power play practice session for Red Deer and an endless penalty kill for the T-Birds and was unbefitting a tournament of this stature.

The game started innocently enough in the early going.  After killing that initial penalty, the Thunderbirds struck first with a goal by Justin Polischuk, who beat Rebel goalie Garrett Laidler low to the stick side with a slap shot from 40 feet at 2:30 of the period.  The parade to the penalty box then began and the Rebels' Lane Menage got his team on the board on their next power play, parked on the doorstep to knock in a rebound off a wrist shot from the point at 6:42.

One minute later, Red Deer was back on the power play and connected for the second time to take the lead at 8:52, Brett Printz getting three whacks at a loose puck just outside the crease to Glover’s right.  Two minutes later, Red Deer was again given the man advantage and at 12:41, they took a 3 – 1 lead with their third straight power play goal.  This one came from Andrew Williams, who batted the puck out of the air and past Glover after a bouncing shot popped up off Glover’s leg pad.

South Island barely survived three more power plays in the final five minutes of the first period but Red Deer had spent almost all of the last 14 minutes in the Thunderbirds’ end and recorded an amazing total of 40 shots on goal.  The T-Birds could manage only 4 at the other end.

Head Coach Rob Milliken remained remarkably restrained in the circumstances but was understandably upset that a tournament game of this stature had been taken away from the players from the outset.  He was also concerned about the toll those penalties had taken on his players, especially on his starting goalie who had already faced a game and a half worth of shots.

The second period picked up where the first left off as South Island still had to kill the last 38 seconds of their seventh penalty.  South Island’s eighth penalty came after only 26 more seconds elapsed.  And sure enough, 33 seconds later, Red Deer had its fourth goal and a 4 – 1 lead when Menage again knocked a rebound by Glover from the edge of the crease.  That came on the Rebels’ 44^th shot on goal and Milliken decided then that Glover had faced enough rubber for one day, sending out Ryan Waldhaus in relief.

South Island was penalized for the ninth time at 5:03 and Red Deer added to its lead with another power play goal at 6:08, this one coming from Justin Faux who took a pass from Luke Madill and pulled the puck around Waldhaus as he cut across the slot.

From that point, Lockwood put his whistle away for a while and the game actually started to look like hockey for the rest of the second period with both teams enjoying relatively equal territorial play.  The shots on goal for the period were 8 – 8, which was a very fair representation of the play.

Red Deer added a sixth goal at 1:45 of the third period on a play that started with a bad line change for South Island.  Printz was sent in alone on Waldhaus from the blue line but was foiled by “Waldy” on his initial attempt.  Printz then followed the puck to the end boards, wriggled free from a late arriving defender and centred the puck to a wide open Wyatt Fraser who took his time and flipped the puck over the sprawling goalie.

The game deteriorated again in the second half of the period as four more minor penalties were called on South Island in the final eight minutes of play.  Those got the Rebel shooting gallery going again and produced two more meaningless power play goals by Mike Marianchuk at 15:42 and Menage at 17:26 to complete his hat trick.

While Red Deer remained undefeated and advanced to the quarterfinals, this was an unfortunate way for the South Island team to finish its first ever Mac’s tournament.  Still, it will not ultimately diminish what has been a tremendous overall experience for the South Island team, having had the opportunity to play with the best teams in Western Canada and show that they can compete at the very highest levels.  Their final record was 0 – 3 – 1 but the team can be very proud to have stayed with teams of the quality of the Notre Dame Hounds and the Calgary Buffaloes.

The goal this week was to improve and then return home as a better hockey team.  Time will tell if that is the case as the improvement will have to be reflected in some big BCMML games coming up in January as the team tries to maintain its playoff position in the standings.  That will be the ultimate black and white result that matters.