Red Deer Rebels drop home opener to Edmonton Oil Kings<\/p>\n
Published 9:14 pm Saturday, September 19, 2026<\/p>\n
Despite outshooting the Edmonton Oil Kings by 16 shots, the Red Deer Rebels dropped their home opener 3-1 at the Marchant Crane Centrium on Saturday, Sept. 19.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a good first period. The second and third periods Edmonton pushed back and they were physical,\u201d said Rebels head coach Brent Kisio.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur guys worked hard and they were around the net. \u2026 The chances are there, we\u2019ve just got to bury them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trailing by one in the 13:33 into the first period, Rebels forward Kalder Varga collected the puck from an offensive-zone faceoff win and ripped a shot past Oil Kings goaltender Elias Mitrikas to score Red Deer\u2019s first goal on home ice this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great (faceoff) win by (Cameron) Kuzma. I was able to get a good pick by (Poul) Andersen on the weak-side winger. I was able to get some clear space and let it rip,\u201d said Varga.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it wasn\u2019t good enough. We had to do more and there was a lot more game after that. We\u2019ve got to execute and work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Varga recently attended the Colorado Avalanche\u2019s rookie camp, which ran Sept. 11-15. He suited up for the Avalanche during their Rookie Showcase in San Jose, scoring two goals in as many games.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re playing guys who are 25 years old and 26 years old. They\u2019re smart, they\u2019re pros and they\u2019re looking for jobs, not only a spot on the team,\u201d said Varga.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing how professional they are, how they handle themselves, how they treat their bodies and how they go out there and work \u2014 it\u2019s so much to learn from. You want to become one of those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Geneva, Illinois native was traded to the Rebels last January. He put up 13 goals and 13 assists in 34 games with the Rebels following the trade. Listed at six-foot and 180 pounds, Varga said he\u2019s excited to enter a full season as a Rebel.<\/p>\n
\u201cStarting with the group early in the year, we\u2019re going to build some chemistry early on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year there were moments we were really good. We\u2019re going to carry that and we\u2019re going to try to be as consistent as possible. It\u2019s going to be really exciting and we\u2019re going to work hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Oil Kings went on to score early in the third period and then added an empty-net goal in the final minute.<\/p>\n
The Rebels are now 0-1-1 to start the season. The team fell 3-2 in a shootout in the season opener, a road matchup against the Hitmen in Calgary on Friday, Sept. 18. Cameron Kuzma and Kohen Lodge had Red Deer\u2019s goals in that game.<\/p>\n
Red Deer was without captain Beckett Hamilton to start the season as he is at Colorado Avalanche\u2019s main training camp.<\/p>\n
The Rebels are next in action Friday, Sept. 25 in Lethbridge. Red Deer then returns home for a matchup against the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday, Sept. 26. Puck drop is set for 6 p.m. at the Marchant Crane Centrium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Deer Rebels drop home opener to Edmonton Oil Kings Published 9:14 pm Saturday, September 19, 2026 Despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[901,49,48,23752,6387],"class_list":["post-902541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-alberta","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton","tag-rebels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}