There hasn’t been a lot of hockey as of late for the Edmonton Oil Kings, with just two games over the past two weeks. The club looked to get right back into the swing of things against the Regina Pats as they approach a busy part of the schedule that will see the club take the ice three times over a four-day stretch.
However, the team fell short despite piling up a whopping 39 shots against Pats goaltender Donovan Buskey. Edmonton struggled to find an answer for Buskey throughout the game and failed to capitalize on multiple ‘grade A’ scoring chances.
“We got to be better defensively and be aware of who’s on the ice,” stated Oil Kings Head Coach Brad Lauer post-game.
“Their top-line outperformed our top-line, and that’s the difference in the game.”
On the other end of the ice, the Pats took full advantage of every opportunity they had to jump on the scoreboard. After getting up early, they were able to stay resilient to come home with two-points to finish off their Central Division road trip.
The Oil Kings broke open the scoring just two minutes into the Friday night matchup after drawing an early powerplay opportunity. The calm and collected Matthew Robertson set his sights from the point as the New York Rangers defensive prospect added his 12th goal of the year.
From there, the Pats responded no more than two minutes later.
They then added another tally before the first period ended to take their first lead of the game, and added to that lead just nine seconds into the second frame to take a 3-1 lead over the top team in the Western Conference. Riley Krane, Cole Dubinsky, and Logan Nijhoff were the goal scorers for the Pats.
The Oil Kings’ hopes of climbing back into the game were regained when captain Scott Atkinson brought the game within one after finding an open space in the slot to laser a shot past Buskey resulting from a perfectly executed zone entry by the Oil Kings.
Edmonton then spent the rest of the game clawing to find one more goal to tie the game back up, but Ryker Evans stepped on the Oil Kings neck when he scored with 10 minutes left in the third period to give the Pats yet another two-goal lead.
Logan Dowhaniuk scored his first goal of the season with just under five minutes remaining to bring the game back within one, and now the Oil Kings fans were on the edge of their seats in hopes of their team climbing back to win six games in a row. However, it was too little too late as Nijhoff added his second goal of the game on an empty net to close out a 5-3 win for the Pats.
The star of the show was Buskey, who stopped 36-of-39 shots on the night to pick up his eighth win of the season. On the offensive side, it was Regina’s top players who left the biggest dent in the scoreboard with their top line of Nijhoff (two goals), Krane (one goal, three assists), and Robbie Holmes (four assists) combining for a total of 10 points.
Oil Spill…
- Three stars were 1) Robbie Holmes 2) Riley Krane 3) Scott Atkinson
- Oil Kings PP 1-for-5, Pats PP 0-for3
- Shots 39-25 in favor of the Oil Kings
- Jake Neighbours extends point streak to 9 games
- Dylan Guenther‘s point streak snapped at 8 games
Up Next:
The Oil Kings head right back into action as they welcome some of the WHL’s most lethal offensive threats into Rogers Place in a Central Division Saturday night rivalry versus the Medicine Hat Tigers.
Regina heads back to Saskatchewan, where they’ll prepare for a matchup against the Brandon Wheat Kings on home-ice.
