In their final meeting of the season, the Red Deer Rebels were embarrassed at the hands of the Lethbridge Hurricanes last night in WHL action.

The red-hot Hurricanes scored four power play goals in a 7-3 win and have now won eight straight games.

Head Coach and GM Brent Sutter was not impressed with his team’s effort and held nothing back in his post-game interview.

“Brutal. Right from the opening faceoff. It was a total lack of respect to our jersey, it was a total lack of respect for the fans,” said Sutter.

“Just brutal.”  

It wasn’t just the lack of effort that upset Sutter.

“They don’t want to pay attention to systems, specialty teams are brutal, but they’re brutal because they’re not dialed in and focused to play,” said Sutter.

Special teams has been something the Rebels have struggled with all season owning a power play percentage of under 18 and rank 18th  in the league.

Rebels went 0-3 on the power player and gave up four goals on the penalty kill.

 Although the Rebels gave up seven goals, Sutter was quick to defend his two goalies.

“We’re lucky guys, let’s face it, that should have been a 15-3 game if it wasn’t for our goalies,” said Sutter.

Starter Lasse Peterson was pulled midway through the third period for Riley Lamb after letting in the first five goals.

“Our goalies were outstanding. That’s why I took Petey out of the game because I felt bad for him,” said Sutter.

“He didn’t deserve to be punished anymore.”

Rebels Dawson Martin started the scoring eight minutes into the game, but it was short-lived.

Hurricanes responded three minutes later with a power play goal by Zane Franklin.

Game was tied 1-1 at the end of the first period.

It didn’t take long for the Hurricanes to take their first lead of the game after Zak Zborosky scored his 33rd goal of the season minutes into the second period.

Just as the Hurricanes did in the first period, the Rebels responded quickly on a goal from Austin Glover tying it up at two.

Hurricanes added two power play goals before the end of the period from Brennan Riddle and Egor Babenko.

Three more goals were scored by the Hurricanes in the third period including Tyler Wong’s 39th  goal of the season.

“We have a lot of guys who take half the days off in the week, don’t compete and don’t play hard enough on a nightly basis,” said Sutter.

Lane Zablocki scored the Rebels only goal in the final frame.

Rebels get a chance to redeem themselves Friday night when they host the Swift Current Broncos. Game time is 7 p.m.