The Red Deer Rebels filled the opposition net Wednesday at the Centrium, but there was a tradeoff.

Call it misguided generosity.

On a night when they dominated their Western Hockey League foes, the Rebels needed a late highlight-reel goal from Colby Armstrong and an empty-net marker from Justin Mapletoft to secure a 7-5 win over the Kamloops Blazers.

The Rebels led 4-1 in the second period and 5-3 in the final frame, but couldn't apply the knockout punch despite holding a 43-25 advantage in shots before 4,182 fans.

"We had too many (defensive) breakdowns and I didn't think (goaltender Shane) Bendera had one of his better games. There were some weak goals on him," said Red Deer GM/head coach Brent Sutter.

"We didn't compete hard enough in certain areas and Kamloops capitalized on our mistakes. There were times tonight when we had everyone going in every direction.

"You have to pick up your guy early and commit yourself so the defencemen can read from it. Our forwards weren't sure what to do at times."

After Konstantin Panov scored on a dreadful giveaway at 13:15 of the third period to cut Red Deer’s lead to 5-4, Gable Gross notched his second goal of the game at 16:09 to pull the Blazers even.

Not to worry.

Armstrong roared to the rescue 61 seconds later, stepping around a pair of Kamloops defenders and lifting a backhand over the shoulder of netminder Davis Parley.

Armstrong also picked up a pair of assists, while Mapletoft scored twice and set up two others and the third member of the Rebels’ top line, Kyle Wanvig, had a single helper.

Now, that's production.

"For the last couple days in practice, after the Lethbridge game (3-2 loss Sunday), we've been working on putting a lot of pucks on net," said Mapletoft.

"Tonight we did. We had a lot of shots, made some plays and the puck went in the net. We made some mental errors in the third period that cost us, but we were able to come back and it was a great effort by Armstrong to score the winner. But in this league you can't do that every night. You can't let teams back in the game and tonight we did."

Bryce Thoma, Ross Lupaschuk, Jim Vandermeer and Joel Stepp rounded out the Rebels' attack, while the Blazers also got goals from Scott Upshall and Erik Christensen.

As Sutter noted, it was a night of mixed blessings for his club, which improved to 17-4-1-1 and moved to within five points of the front-running Kootenay Ice in the Central Division. Red Deer, with four games in hand on the Ice, are second overall in the entire league.

"At certain times we weren't strong defensively and at other times we were very good," said Sutter. "The positives are that we won and we got a lot of pucks at the net and went to the net a lot harder.

"But again, you have to be extra disciplined when you don't have the puck, you have to be more aware. We lacked discipline in our defensive coverage, both in the neutral zone and in our own end, and we have to do better than that."

Blazers assistant coach Craig Bonner voiced similar concerns.

"Our guys didn't quit and I guess that was a positive, but any time you give up seven goals it's going to be tough to win, especially against a team like Red Deer. They played hard and they deserved to win," said Bonner. "As a whole, our team has to be better defensively, we have to battle a little harder in our own end. Five goals on the road should be enough to win."

The Blazers fell to 1-2-1 on their six-game Eastern Conference trip that concludes with games Friday and Saturday in Lethbridge and Cranbrook.