SIX NATIONS – Let’s face it. The four-time consecutive Founders Cup Champion Rebels are simply that much better than the Wallaceburg Red Devils, their opponents in the first round of the Western Quarter Final Playoffs.
Friday night, the best of five series began with at the ILA with the Rebels easily winning 19-6. They played again Sunday afternoon in Wallaceburg, where the Rebs crushed the Devils even worse by a 12-1 score.
Friday night, the Rebels left no room for the Devils as they outshot Wallaceburg 60-27, burning through both starting goaltender Eric Shepley and back up goalie Emily VanDamme, the only female player in the league. Shepley allowed 13 goals in his time in the Devils net while VanDamme allowed eight.
As with every team in the playoffs, your best players need to be your best players and captain Mitch Green led with a 10-point game scoring one and assisting on nine.
He was definitely the “quarterback” out on the floor setting up his linemates while drawing defenders towards himself.
Layne Smith continues to fill the net as the Rebels top goal scorer with 41 goals in the regular season. He scored four goals Friday along with three assists.
The Rebels took it a bit easy on the Devils in the first period quietly building up a 4-1 lead with methodical precision.
The Devils pulled out all the stops in the second and, while scoring four goals on Briley Miller, they allowed eight to finish the second period with the Rebels leading 11-5.
Wallaceburg seemed to burn themselves out in the third period as the Rebels had their way in the Devils zone, scoring seven more against the Devils one for the 19-6 final.
There were no penalties in the first two periods and only a few minors in third.
Several Six Nations players recorded multiple points Friday night to open the 2015 playoff season, and the unheard of Rebels Drive-for-Five consecutive Founders Cups.
Sunday afternoon’s game in Wallaceburg must have been hard for local fans to watch. After the Devils scored the first goal of the game at the 5:40 mark, the fans might as well have gone home happy then, because for the rest of the game, it was all Rebels, all day.
Mitch Green once again set the pace scoring three and assisting on three more. In total 14 Rebels added to their statistics
But it wasn’t like the Devils had no chances, the shots on goal were relatively even, but the difference was Briley Miller who denied 41 of 42 stops he had to deal with.
Game #3 set for the ILA Friday night at 8 pm, when they could sweep the Devils in front of the “Rebel Nation” fans.