Late goal lifts 'Hawks
By GREG MEACHEM
Advocate staff

Winter Hawks 3 Rebels 2

All good things must come to an end.

But geez, giving up the decisive goal with just under five seconds showing on the clock is a painful way to lose.

"It was a mistake, we had our man locked up and let him go in the neutral zone. Gordy (Boyd Gordon) had him and he just quit on him," said Red Deer Rebels GM/coach Brent Sutter following Friday's 3-2 Western Hockey League loss to the Portland Winter Hawks before 5,215 fans at the Centrium.

Nick Marach pounced on a turnover just outside the Rebels blueline, took two strides and drilled a shot beyond goaltender Michael Garnett to give the Hawks their first road win of the season.

The winning goal came just three minutes after Ross Lupaschuk had scored to pull the Rebels even.

"It's frustrating for the kids, to be 2-2 and let a goal be scored against you on a three-on-three on a defensive breakdown," said Sutter, who admitted his team didn't play up to par.

"To be honest, I thought we made more mistakes here tonight than we've made in a month," he continued. "It's another good lesson for our team. The kids were thinking of how good they played in Calgary (2-1 win Wednesday) and feeling good about it.

"That team (Portland) has now won five in a row. We were playing a good hockey club and I don't think we had enough guys who respected them enough."

Still, the Rebels created enough chances in the first period alone to build a comfortable lead, but Hawks netminder Lanny Ramage was nothing short of brilliant, making 16 of his 27 saves in the opening frame.

"I didn't think we played with the intensity and emotion we needed," said Sutter. "Look at the first period. We had 16 shots on goal but eight of them were on one power play.

"After that we had another 10 or 12 (13, actually), and that's not good enough. Certain players who've been playing really well for us the last month  were really just very average tonight."

Rebels leading scorer Justin Mapletoft came up empty but said it wasn't for a lack of opportunities.

"We had a lot of chances and didn't capitalize," said Mapletoft. "You have to give Ramage credit, he stood on his head."

The Hawks, as a team, also deserved credit. In some ways, they resembled the Rebels.

"They don't give you too many chances. They really limited our chances the last two periods," said Mapletoft. "They battled hard in their own end, like we do, but they're the team that came out ahead tonight."

Portland head coach Mike Williamson was breathing a sigh of relief at the final buzzer.

"I think we have a lot better team than what we showed tonight, but at least we played hard in the third period and Lanny Ramage just came up huge for us," said Williamson.

"Lanny kept us in the game the first and second periods. We gave up too many quality chances, although a lot of that was what Red Deer does as a team. They have a lot of speed and they work hard.

"We didn't necessarily deserve the win tonight, but we fought through and found a way to win. We're just going to enjoy it for now."

The Rebels got goals from Justin Wallin and Ross Lupaschuk, but left another three to four in the glove and pads of Ramage.

"It's been that way for two weeks. We haven't been burying our opportunities and it eventually catches up to you," said Sutter.