The Oil Kings got the bounce-back performance they were hoping for in front of a loud and enthusiastic crowd at Rogers place versus the Medicine Hat Tigers,
On Friday night, Edmonton suffered their first home regulation loss since November 11th after dropping a surprising 5-3 decision to the Regina Pats.
Oil Kings Head Coach, Brad Lauer opted to go back to veteran goaltender Beck Warm and shuffled his lines around a little. David Kope moved back to his familiar spot on the third line with Ethan McIndoe and Liam Keeler. Josh Williams hopped up to the second line alongside Carter Souch and Scott Atkinson. The fourth line was reunited with Tyler Hortsmann, Vladimir Allistrov and Jaylen Luypen filling out the forward group.
The line changes were working out early for the Oil Kings. They were creating chances throughout the early portion of the game with the best of them falling to McIndoe. If it weren’t for a stretched out pad from Garin Bjorklund, the Oil Kings would’ve gotten off to the perfect start. However, it quickly became the opposite.
Jonathan Brinkman fired a hard wrist shot over the right shoulder of Warm and neatly into the corner of the goal to open the scoring. Honestly, not too much the Oil Kings shot-stopper could’ve done about it. The goal was also a little controversial though. Only a few moments before, Bjorklund’s glove gave Jake Neighbours’ face a quick hello right in front of the official but no call. Considering how involved the boys in stripes were involved, everyone was surprised not to see the call made.
Karma was on Edmonton’s side though when only seconds later Kope found the back of the net. Bjorklund failed to control Kope’s shot from the sideboards, and the puck ended up making its way over him and trickled over the line.
McIndoe got his goal towards the backend of the period tipping in a Dylan Guenther shot to give Edmonton a 2-1 lead heading into the intermission.
“Coming off that long break I just don’t think we had our legs under us (vs Regina), but today we did a much better job getting our feet moving early,” said Ethan Cap about his team’s start to the game. “We had a really good start, and that continued to build throughout the game.”
The second period was filled with penalties (seven) which interfered with the flow of the game; despite there being so many minors called, only one goal was scored in the period.
That goal came from Ethan Cap who blasted home his fourth of the year after Guenther set him up perfectly for the one-timer.
“I think that’s the only way I score these days,” joked Ethan Cap about his goal.
Edmonton struck early in the third from Neighbours, and the Tigers responded to that with one of their own from Dylan Plouffe. However, an empty netter from Guenther made it 5-2 and got the Oil Kings back in the win column.
“We put a lot more emotion and energy into the game and played a much better team game,” said Brad Lauer. “Last night we weren’t ourselves, and we paid the price for it, but tonight we were better.”
“Tonight our powerplay was good, our penalty kill was really good, and I thought our five on five play got better,” said Lauer about his team’s performance. “We were a little bit lacks in the third period when they started to have the push on us, but again that’s just something we’ve got to be a little better at.”
Oil Spill…
- Three stars were 1) Dylan Guenther 2) Ethan McIndoe 3) Beck Warm
- Oil Kings PP 2-for-4, Pats PP 0-for-4
- Shots 30-27 in favour of the Oil Kings
- Jake Neighbours extends point streak to nine games
Up Next:
The Oil Kings welcome the Lethbridge Hurricanes to Rogers Place on Family Day Monday.
