Rebels outplay Hitmen
By GREG MEACHEM
Advocate staff

Rebels 5 Hitmen 4

AIRDRIE — Brent Sutter isn't picky, but he wasn't overly thrilled with his team's performance in Wednesday's 5-4 WHL preseason win over the Calgary Hitmen.

"I thought we played pretty sloppy defensively and I thought we had some guys who played fairly soft," said the Red Deer Rebels GM/head coach.

"You can't have that. I won't accept it and guys that play that way won't play regularly for us."

Sutter wasn't mentioning any names, but second-year rearguards Colin Johnson and Jeff Woywitka, among others, didn't earn any points with the coaching staff.

On a positive note, the Rebels outplayed the Hitmen down the stretch for the second game in a row, following on the heels of Friday's 4-2 win at Rocky Mountain House.

"I think part of it is that we're a much better conditioned team this year," said Sutter. "We’re more confident going into the third period now because we know we can keep our pace up."

Actually, Red Deer was the better team for almost the entire 60 minutes Wednesday, despite falling behind 2-0 early in front of a capacity crowd of 600.

"We didn't get a lot of (scoring) chances tonight although we did score three goals five on five. I thought Red Deer had the majority of the chances," said Hitmen coach Dean Clark.

Calgary netminder Ryan Martin stopped 33 shots while the Rebels duo of Michael Garnett and Cam Ward combined for 21 saves.

Garnett gave up first-period goals to Taggart Desmet and Michael Bubnick and a second-period marker to Noah Whyte, while Ward, who came in at 11:19 of the middle frame, was beaten by Richard McPherson late in the game.

Andrew Bergen notched a pair of highlight-reel goals to pace the Rebels, who got singles from rookie Shey Stephenson, Boyd Gordon and Doug Lynch.

Bergen's performance brought a smile to Sutter's face.

"Since the first day of camp he's played very well for us. I’m very pleased with Bergey," said the Rebels boss.

"I had a bit of a tough season last year," said Bergen, a fourth-year forward who turns 19 next month.

"I just tried to work hard over the summer and get my conditioning up for camp. I wanted to get off to a good start and hopefully I can keep it going."

Bergen, who also scored in Friday's contest, admitted his preseason success has given him a boost of confidence, but he's not taking anything for granted.

"I'm not going to set any numbers or anything for this season," he insisted. "I'm just going to go out and play my game and hopefully get a few goals here and there. If I work hard the goals will come."

Sutter also gave passing grades to sophomore forward Colby Armstrong and rookie attackers Jason Ertl, who hopes to play with the Red Deer Optimist Chiefs midgets this season, and Donovan Rattray.

"Ertl had never played a major junior game and he played exactly the  way I wanted him to play, and that’s why he’s a great prospect for us," said Sutter.

While the Rebels dressed nine veterans, the Hitmen had only six returnees in uniform.

"I  guess if you look at it that way, it was OK," Clark said of his team's effort. "We’re not going to panic over anything. We're just here to evaluate players, to see who can play through the traffic and that type of thing."

Clark certainly wasn't losing any sleep over the fact the Hitmen were outplayed in the late stages of a second consecutive contest.

"In both third periods we've had young defencemen and a young goaltender in there," he said. "In this league if your defence is young and doesn't have the experience, those things are going to happen.

"You know that going into the exhibition season. That's part of the game and part of the process of evaluating and trying to get your young guys better."

 The Hitmen currently have 12 players in NHL training camps, with a legitimate chance of getting seven or eight of them back for the 2000-2001 WHL season. The key question marks are Matt Pettinger, Kris Beech and Pavel Brendl.

The Rebels are back in action Friday when they meet the Lethbridge Hurricanes in a 7:30 p.m. contest in Stettler.