Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Grubbe's Four Assist Effort Helps Power Red Deer Win

Jayden Grubbe (Red Deer Rebels)
Tuesday night was a light night for the New York Rangers that was supposed to be highlighted by Talyn Boyko's Kelowna Rockets taking on Matthew Rempe's Seattle Thunderbirds. The two teams are fighting for the fourth seed and home ice in the WHL's Western Conference. 

But Jayden Grubbe and his Red Deer Rebels stole the thunder from what was a great game by playing an emotionally charged game on a sad night for their own coach. Steve Konowalchuk was a Ranger's scout last season focusing on the WHL. 

He left the Rangers to become the head coach of the Red Deer Rebels last June and ironically one of his new players was one of the two third-round picks of the Rangers in Jayden Grubbe. Grubbe only played five games in the Covid-shortened season after tearing his ACL but Konowalchuk saw something to convince the Rangers to use a third-round pick on him.

And to be really honest for most of this season it was really hard to see what Konowalchuk and the Rangers saw in Grubbe as he has struggled with his game. That was until Tuesday's game against the Medicine Hat Tigers. 

Steve Konowalchuk's father passed away prior to the game and if you think his players wanted this game for their coach, then you know what is coming. The captain of the Rebels, Grubbe with a career-best four assists led his teammates to an 11-1 thrashing of the Tigers.

The Rebels did it on the road for their fifth straight win and this one fired-up team. The Rebels scored just 24 seconds into the game to grab a lead that they never even trailed in. 

Grubbe earned his first assist at 6:04 of the first with a secondary goal that wound up being the game-winner. In the third period with the Rebels up 8-1, Grubbe got his second assist also a secondary one at 5:01 to make it 9-1.

Assist number three was a primary assist coming on Frantisek Formanek's goal at 11:14. And Grubbe finished his evening with another secondary assist on the final goal of the night at 15:51. 

Other than his faceoffs (7-11), it was the best performance of the season for Grubbe as in addition to the four assists, he was also a +4 on three shots. Grubbe improved to 8-18-26. 

Our deepest sympathies to the Konowalchuk family. 

In Seattle, Matthew Rempe and his Seattle Thunderbirds hosted Talyn Boyko and his Kelowna Rockets. The 6'9 center for the Thunderbirds in my book earned a "Gordie Howe" hat trick (goal, assist, fight) even if he didn't get credited with an assist as his Thunderbirds rallied for two goals in the game's final minute to earn a 4-3 win.

Boyko got his Thunderbirds going when he deflected Chase Lacombe's shot past Boyko for a 1-0 Seattle lead. Seattle would dominate the first period outshooting the Rockets 13-4 but the game was tied after one at 1-1 thanks to Boyko's solid play. 

In fact, Seattle outplayed the Rockets in the second period as well but Boyko was excellent stopping all 13 shots he faced as Kelowna took a 2-1 lead. In the third Rempe dropped the gloves with Kelowna's Tyson Feist and it was a crazy fight that saw Rempe's skate blade come flying off when the players hit the ice. 

After Rempe served his time and Kelowna clung to a 3-2 lead, the Thunderbirds pulled their goalie trying to score the tying goal. Rempe showed what his 6'9 frame could do when he totally screened Boyko as Seattle tied the game with 59 seconds remaining in regulation. 

This was a textbook screen by Boyko and it will most likely be his ticket to the NHL if he gets that far.  Seattle would score with just 11 seconds left in regulation to steal the win. 

Boyko kept Kelowna in a game that they played terribly in front of him, with odd-man rushes and shorthanded breakaways as well as being outshot by Seattle 40-20. Felt bad for Bokyo as he deserved better than this. 

Boyko stopped 36 out of 40 to fall to 21-14-2-1 with a goals-against of 3.06 and a save percentage of 0.909. Rempe's goal was his 13th as he improved to 13-3-16 for the season. 

Seattle moved past Kelowna for fourth place in the WHL's Western Conference by one point but Kelowna has one game in hand. 

Riley Hughes and his Northeastern Huskies blew what was a golden chance to pull within two points of first place in the Hockey East standing when they were shutout 1-0 by the lowly Vermont Catamounts.

Clearly, the Huskies were very guilty of looking past 10th placed Vermont as they have a winner-take-all series with Merrimack this weekend. The Huskies left their offense at home as Hughes had just one shot. 

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