Red Deer evens series with Chiefs

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Wheatland Chiefs may have met their match in the midget double-A league final.
The local midget double-A team could not take a stranglehold on the series in Game 2 as Red Deer won 2-1 in double overtime to tie the series at one game apiece on March 15 at the Strathmore Family Centre.
“We didn’t start like we wanted to, we needed to get those early goals and it didn’t happen,” said assistant coach Shadoe Stoodley.
“We were gripping our sticks too tight and not playing the way we should’ve been the whole game but our third period and overtime I thought was pretty good.”
Red Deer did a outstanding job getting in the shooting lanes, which led to the lack of production.
“It’s frustrating when you get there and get it up top trying to get shots through and they’re knocking them down, said Stoodley. “Their goaltender played pretty good tonight, we didn’t challenge him enough like we should’ve like we did the first game.”
Kyle Rosolowski scored the lone goal in the overtime loss.
Game 1, on March 13, saw the Chiefs get out to a quick 3-0 lead and were able hold on, despite a late Red Deer surge, for a 4-3 victory.
“We came out flying and chased their goalie, which is good and exactly how we want to start. In the second we came out thinking the game was over and scored two goals in the first minute,” said Stoodley.
“From there we beared down and started playing the rest of the game and played very well.”
Grady Strath, Jayden Smith, Kaleb Robinson and Chris Rebeyka scored in the opening game win.
Games 3 and 4 will resume on March 27 and 28 in Red Deer with both games starting at 7:45 p.m.