Moose Jaw 9 Rebels 2

MOOSE JAW — Brent Sutter hates to lose.

But Wednesday night the head coach/GM of the Red Deer Rebels saw some positives in his team’s 9-2 defeat at the hands of the Moose Jaw Warriors.

It was the Rebels’ first loss of the season and snaps a seven-game winning streak. Red Deer was the last undefeated team in the Western Hockey League.

“We got what we deserved, a good old beating,” said Sutter. “I thought from our goaltenders on out we were terrible.

“Maybe it’s a blessing. Maybe they’ll start realizing — and I warned them after the Brandon game — that we got away with a win and we didn’t play that well.”

Sutter said his team has stopped doing the little things away from the puck that gave them success at the start of the season.

He noticed the first signs of decay during Monday’s 4-2 win over the Wheat Kings in Brandon.

“Moose Jaw has a heck of a team, they have a lot of veteran players,” said Sutter. “If you’re not prepared to play and you take things for granted then this is what will happen.”

Sutter said it should have happened in Brandon, but the Rebels got lucky at the Keystone Centre.

While the Rebels have not had to face any adversity so far this year, their first big test comes Friday night in Prince Albert against the Raiders.

It’s the sixth and final game of their current road trip and it’s a game Sutter is going to use to judge the character of his team.

“Adversity is good if we deal with it the right way,” he said. “We’ve got to stay level-headed and stay prepared to play and do the little things right.”

Sutter pulled starting goalie Michael Garnett in favour of Shane Bendera at 15:18 of the first period after Moose Jaw’s fourth goal, a power play marker by Steven Crampton.

The Warriors scored four power play goals on the night, prompting Sutter to criticize his special teams as much as his goaltenders.

“Right from the first whistle we weren’t a good hockey club tonight,” he said.

Joel Stepp scored at 8:57 of the first period to briefly give the Rebels a piece of a 1-1 tie while Colby Armstrong notched Red Deer’s second goal with seven seconds left in the opening frame.

The Warriors, who led 4-2 after the first period, added one goal in the second and four goals in the third.

Brian Sutherby had three goals while Jason Weitzel, Ben Knopp, Shawn Limpright, Tomas Mojzis and Jarrett Thompson also tallied for Moose Jaw.

Bendera and Garnett combined for just 20 saves for Red Deer while Sean Connors stopped 32 shots for the Warriors.

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Sutter traded 19-year-old defenceman Adam Dombrowski to the Swift Current Broncos for a fourth-round Bantam draft pick on Wednesday.

It’s the same pick the Rebels gave up to acquire 18-year-old Diarmuid Kelly from Kelowna last week.

“It was a situation where Dombrowski was the seventh defenceman on our team,” said Sutter. “As a 19-year-old, he would have to give us more than that and I just couldn’t find the ice time for him that he would have wanted.”

Sutter called up 17-year-old rearguard Shane Grypiuk from AAA midget in Saskatchewan to replace Dombrowski. Grypiuk, who notched an assist on Stepp’s goal, will be with the team for the rest of the season.

“He played well tonight,” said Sutter. “He was probably our best defenceman.”