Doetzel did that? You gotta be
kidding?!
It’s true, honest. The game changing
offensive play was last night made by a stay-at-home defenseman who
had not scored a single goal all season long.
With his team trailing 3-1 late in the second period, Rebels defenseman Kayle Doetzel channelled his inner Bobby Orr and went on an end-to-end rush and capped it off with a stunning goal.
With his team trailing 3-1 late in the second period, Rebels defenseman Kayle Doetzel channelled his inner Bobby Orr and went on an end-to-end rush and capped it off with a stunning goal.
36 seconds later Dominik Volek tied the
game before the end of the middle frame. Haydn Fleury netted the
game winner in the opening minute of the third period as the Rebels
stunned the Prince Albert Raiders 6-3.
The goal came at the perfect time, with
Doetzel’s team in need of a major spark. After Brady Gaudet had
been banished to the penalty box for a (somewhat questionable)
holding infraction the Raiders scored two goals just 27 seconds apart
to take that 3-1 lead. As I had put on twitter the game had been
“put on its ear.” A definite sense of shock had made its way
into the Enmax Centrium.
But with a single, spectacular, very
much unexpected play… Doetzel lifted his team’s spirits and
provided the game with its marquee moment.
“Really, the turning point was
Doetz’s rush,” noted GM and Head Coach Brent Sutter during his
postgame scrum. “He scored a big goal there for us and we gained
momentum off that we seemed to carry it right through from there on.”
Let’s be realistic about this moving
forward. Is this goal likely to spark an offensive explosion for
Doetzel? It’s about as likely as… But for now, let’s all enjoy
the moment provided to us by Doetzel for both its sheer beauty and
its impact.
Overall, in examining last night’s
game, the Rebels put forth their second straight strong performance
on home ice (after beating Prince George 5-1 on November 23). It was
certainly much improved over their road effort just one night
earlier.
“We needed as response [from
Tuesday’s 5-2 loss in Calgary] and it certainly was a 180 from last
night,” Sutter noted. “You know our effort, from start to
finish, we had a pretty solid game, right from our goaltender right
on out through our whole team.”
Doetzel provided the spark while Fleury
notched the game winner, highlighting a great effort by the Rebels
defence corps.
Said Sutter “Really, the difference
though was the fact that I thought our defence, overall as a group,
did a really good job of moving pucks, making the right plays, smart
decisions with pucks. When you get pucks out of your zone, you’re
able to make those stick-to-stick passes and get speed through the
neutral zone. It creates stuff for you.”
“It was four on four,” Doetzel
explained as he discussed the play with me this afternoon. “The
puck popped out in front of the [Rebels] net where I was and I saw an
opening so I put the hammer down. I beat the one guy and saw their
d-men kind of flat-footed so I thought ‘what the heck’ and I
tried to burn him wide. Then I saw an opening to the net so I took
it to there and just tried to beat the goalie.”
Beat the goalie he did… with a sharp
backhander lifted straight to the top-shelf.
“I surprised even myself a little
bit,” said Doetzel regarding the spectacular shot. “It was just
good to get it in there.”
Now that he’s done it once, is this
something we can look forward to seeing again from Doetzel at any
point?
“Yeah, it’s still kinda there. I’m
more of a defensive defenseman but if there’s an opening…”
---
Some great news today for Dominik Volek
as he was named to the Czech Republic’s selection camp roster for
the upcoming World Junior Hockey Championships.
It comes at a time when Volek, in the
opinion of many, is playing his best hockey since coming to the
Rebels at around this time last year in a trade from the Regina Pats
(though Volek was playing professionally in Europe at the time).
“I’m gonna try everything,” Volek
said regarding his attempt to crack the final team roster. “Bring
everything that I’ve learned here because we have in our pool
Canada and the US. So, I think it’s going to help that I’ve been
here [WHL] three years now. I know the type of hockey and that Brent
is coaching Team Canada, so it’s going to be fun to play against
him.”
“The good thing
about Dom,” explains Rebels Associate Coach Jeff Truitt “is that
he has been very opportunistic. When he gets these chances in the
offensive zone he’s starting to bury these things, and in a lot of
different ways. There’s been some really nice plays off of the
rush, he’s had a couple of long shots that have gone in, a bit
fortunate that way. He’s shooting more than what he did last year.
He was more of a playmaker last year and now he’s finishing and
that’s great to see.”
27 players are on the selection camp
roster. Volek says they plan to cut 2 of the 16 forwards who are
invited. The plan is that he will be leaving the Rebels on December
11th for the Czech Republic and, should he make the team and play in
the tournament, return January 8th and rejoin the Rebels for their
game in Regina that night (meaning he would miss 9 Rebels games).
---
As they move toward the end of what
perhaps is their toughest week of the season, based on the strength
of their opponents, the Rebels are showing they can indeed hang in
there with the league’s best teams when the put their minds to it.
The Rebels are 2-2 in this eight day stretch with wins over Medicine
Hat and Prince Albert and losses to Swift Current and Calgary. This
coming Saturday’s game versus the always strong Portland
Winterhawks will be another bellwether test for this Red Deer Rebels
club.
---
TG
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