The Oil Kings were rewarded for maintaining consistent offensive zone pressure throughout the course of Sunday’s game which led to a few lucky bounces that allowed them to defeat the Rebels 4-1. The win helped the team keep a perfect record of 2-0 to start the season.
A misplay by Rebels goaltender Ethan Anders behind his net led to an easy tap-in goal for Riley Sawchuk to open up the scoring in the first period.
“Honestly I didn’t even expect it. I was skating, and I had seen it pop out, so I just tapped it in,” is how Sawchuk described the array of events that ended with Oil Kings fans standing to their feet for the first time of the 2019/20 season.
“It was a bit of a garbage goal, but it’s all the same on the scoreboard, so I was happy.”
Following that, Oil Kings rookie Jesse Seppala’s shot from the point took several bounces before finding a way to the back of the net. The Finnish forward’s first WHL goal would go on to become the game-winning goal.
“He’s done really well. For a smaller forward he’s very skilled, he’s a good skater, he’s a guy that can shoot the puck. He plays those high traffic areas, doesn’t shy away from going to the hard areas. When you’re a smaller guy, and you do that you’re going to get your fair share of opportunities.” said Oil Kings head coach Brad Lauer on the play of Seppala through the first two games of the season.
The line of Arshdeep Bains, Chris Douglas, and Zak Smith brought the Rebels their first and only goal of the night just after the halfway point of the second period when Smiths shot rang off the post and came right out front to Douglas who put the puck into a wide-open net.
“I thought when they got going, they were the best line on our team for sure tonight. They all bring a little bit something different. Douglas has very good speed and can finish, has high character. Smitty is a 200 foot Zach Hyman type player and Bainsy has some of the most creativity that I’ve seen in a long time,” said Rebels assistant coach Brad Flynn about the play of the team’s second line in tonight’s matchup.
Another goal would come in the final few minutes of the second period as Liam Keeler lasered home the rebound from an Ethan Cap point shot to make it 3-1 for the Oil Kings.
The third period started with a spirited fight between a pair of 2002’s to spark the game up another level.
“I thought it was a great fight. I love that. You love to see that. Especially one of the smaller guys standing up for himself and he held in really well there it was a good fight. Good for him,” said newly appointed Oil Kings captain Scott Atkinson on the work by Luypen.
After the fight, a scout that has been following Luypen for a while turned to me and said that he’s going to be a captain in the WHL one day. Which I think really speaks to the character of the 17-year-old and he should be a guy fans notice a lot more in his second season with the club.
Sawchuk then put away an empty-net goal to finish off the final frame and secure the second win of the Oil Kings season.
The story of this game came down to the lack of success on the man advantage for both teams.
“What we really realized is that our top and older guys really got to pull up their socks, especially on the power play. We can’t be losing special teams battles when we have a young forward group and young D. But we got to make sure that our power play out-produces the other team’s power play and this weekend they didn’t do that,” said Flynn about the Rebels power play performance in the opening two games of the season.
In hindsight, a positive note for the Rebels was their success in killing off all eight of the Oil Kings opportunities on the man advantage.
“I was really proud of the discipline that came into our team in terms of sticking to the structure, executing the structure and being willing to block shots. And when you have those three things then you have a chance to have a good penalty kill,” explained Flynn in regards to the Rebels success on the penalty kill.
Despite not scoring on the eight power play opportunities the Oil Kings still managed to put four goals on the board and come out of the opening weekend with a huge four points that they hope to build off of moving forward.
Oil Spill…
The three stars tonight were 1) Riley Sawchuk 2) Jesse Seppala 3) Jalen Luypen. Both teams failed to score on the power play with the Oil Kings going 0-for-8 and Rebels going 0-for-7. Wyatt Mcleod went +3 for the Oil Kings tonight. Shots were 32-21 for the Oil Kings, with Todd Scott making 20 saves in his first game of the season. Oil Kings next game is at the Scotia Bank Saddledome where they will face the Calgary Hitmen on Friday, September 27th.
