Despite a strong two-goal performance from Brett Davis, the Kootenay Ice were unable to handle the Edmonton Oil Kings in a 5-2 loss at Western Financial Place on Wednesday evening.
Tomas Soustal, Nick Bowman, Colton Kehler, Brett Kemp and Trey Fix-Wolansky all scored for the Oil Kings while Todd Scott made 32 saves for the win. Duncan McGovern, who manned the crease for the Ice, made 20 stops in defeat.
Ice head coach James Patrick said his team got outworked by the Oil Kings.
“I think we had more breakdowns and they had more will in their game, I thought that was the difference,” Patrick said. “I didn’t think we skated too well as a group, whether we didn’t have much jump, I don’t know, but we had too many passengers and they just hunkered down and blocked every shot and finished checks and they relied on their top line.”
Kootenay got outshot 10-7 in the first period, however, they spent a lot of zone time in Edmonton territory.
Despite that, the Oil Kings went up 1-0 late in the frame after Soustal and Will Warm connected for some pretty passing plays while gaining the zone, with Fix-Wolansky scoring on a wide open net with McGovern out of position.
Twenty-seven seconds into the next period, Soustal scored after entering the Kootenay zone and beating McGovern top shelf.
Even though the Oil Kings gave Kootenay shooters fits on the powerplay, Davis managed to find some space at the side of the faceoff circle and wired a one-timer to get the Ice on the board in the second half of the frame.
The physical play ramped up as the Oil Kings got a little chippy and were punished for it.
However, the Ice couldn’t punish them on the powerplay.
“They’re a more physical team; we have to use our speed,” Patrick said. “We got to get pucks past their D and we’ve got to compete and fight and get engaged, and I don’t mean getting in scrums, but I mean during the game, you have to be able to have two hands on your stick and battle for the puck.
“We had too many flybys.”
The Oil Kings notched another early period goal in the final frame after McGovern gave away the puck behind the net, which was centred to Nick Bowman for a tap in on an empty cage.
However, a few minutes later, Cam Hausinger lobbed the puck across the ice from the defensive zone to a streaking Davis, who busted in on the wing and beat Scott top corner.
That’s 18 goals on the season for the 6th round draft pick of the Dallas Stars.
In search of the equalizer, it was the Oil Kings who extended their lead on a bizarre play where Brett Kemp scored in a scramble; the referee signalled a goal but didn’t immediately blow the play dead.
Despite a push with the extra attacker at the end, the Ice were unable to climb out of the hole.
““As the game went on, I thought we lost too many battles and gave up too many scoring chances,” said Davis. “…I think we just didn’t come out as hard as we could today, if it’s the intensity or whatever. I think we’ll have a good day of practice tomorrow and we’re going to come back strong on Friday.
It’s the second straight defeat on home soil from Edmonton, as the Oil Kings dumped the hosts 5-1 two weeks ago in Cranbrook.
“We know they can be a good team,” said Patrick. “They’ve got good players, but if anyone today thought this was going to be an easy game, they were badly mistaken. We talked about, since yesterday, how this was going to be a tough game.
“They’re playing real hard but I thought they outworked us. That’s the bottom line.”
