Last night, the Calgary Hitmen spoiled the Edmonton Oil Kings’ Fan Appreciation night. This afternoon, the Oil Kings used a barrage of power play goals to return the favour to their southern neighbours.
You couldn’t have asked for a better start following the Hitmen’s 14-minute pregame ceremony where they handed out their annual team awards and recognized this year’s graduating class. Riley Stotts came flying down the wing 49 seconds after puck drop and roofed his 19th of the season past Todd Scott on the Hitmen’s first shot of the game.
From there, Hunter Campbell picked up a slashing penalty, as the undisciplined play from the Hitmen began to snowball en route to the 7-3 loss in the regular season finale.
The Hitmen put the Oil Kings and their 19th ranked power play to work five times in the first period. The Oil Kings boosted their power play percentage up 1.3 per cent after starting the game by converting on all five first-period power plays.
Tomas Soustal punched in a pair of markers. Trey Fix-Wolansky sniped his 32nd of the season, Brett Kemp one-timed home his 17th and Matthew Robertson’s duck from the point snuck past Nick Schneider’s five-hole.
The Western Hockey League record of 10 power play goals looked to be in serious jeopardy after 20 minutes, but the Hitmen were able to clamp down the play in their own end.
Cael Zimmerman was named the Hitmen Rookie of the Year during the pregame ceremony and breathed some life in to the crowd when he smacked home his sixth of the year on the power play to close out the first on a broken pass from Stotts and Mark Kastelic.
The game got back to reality in the second period as the refs swallowed their whistles. The Oil Kings didn’t capitalize on their one man advantage of the frame, but still expanded their lead when 16-year-old defencemen Robertson strolled in from the blue line and picked the top corner blocker side past Schneider.
Playing in his final WHL game, Schneider still kept his composure and didn’t get frustrated despite whatever the big screen read.
“You can look at this season whatever way you want,” said Schneider. “It was an opportunity for me to play minutes and get a lot of shots in different opportunities. (This season) made me a better goalie than I was before.”
A lazy entry pass on a Hitmen power play resulted in a deflected pass and a breakaway to Robertson who had just left the box. Racing in, he could not solve Schneider’s glove.
The Hitmen were down to only 16 skaters for the regular season finale, as Tristen Nielsen and the 20-year-old Conner Chaulk got a little banged up this past week.
A Magic Bullet couldn’t have produced as many line combos that Hitmen Head Coach Dallas Ferguson was sending over the boards, as he was trying to get something to stick and spark a comeback.
Just 17 seconds into the third, defencemen Egor Zamula snapped home his second of the season through a screen to cut the Oil King lead in half.
But once again, it was the suddenly potent power play of the Oil Kings that put the Hitmen to bed once and for all.
Fix-Wolansky wired over a slap-pass to Colton Kehler, who blasted a one-timer past Schneider for his 32nd snipe of the season.
For Schneider, Chaulk and Jakob Stukel, it certainly wasn’t the dream ending to their WHL careers that they had been dreaming about all week.
Chaulk was in a walking boot, Schneider tied his season high with seven goals allowed and Stukel spun his tires all night trying to get traction but couldn’t put one past Scott.
“There’s been a lot of ups and downs this season and missing the playoffs is always tough. But I’ve made some great friendships over the past few years in Calgary and it’s been unbelievable. It’ll be tough to leave this league but you have to learn to move on,” said Stukel, who racked up 94 goals and 79 assists in 198 career games with the Hitmen.
Stukel will be in talks with the Vancouver Canucks this week to determine his future. Same goes for Schneider, who is a Calgary Flames product. As for Chaulk, this marked the end for now and will take some time to figure out the next move. But first, he will reflect on his unpredictable time in the WHL.
“Getting traded here wasn’t something I was expecting, having started in Swift Current. Coming here was a big change, the injuries, ups and downs, this was something I wasn’t expecting but I had a blast doing it,” said Chaulk, who was the only Hitmen forward to finish with a positive plus-minus rating. “I wouldn’t say this year was a disappointing one, but it was tough for sure. This organization has been great to me, I’m blessed to be here, glad I came here and ended my career here. Those are the challenges you face wherever you go and I was happy to finish it all here.”
All three players talked about the future of the franchise and how promising things look moving forward. If there was ever a silver lining in a 7-3 thumping in the final game of their WHL careers, they can take solace in knowing that the loss prevented them from getting bumped back any further in the Bantam Draft standings, making it a very important pick that will only help the future of the franchise even more.
