The Winnipeg ICE outshot the Edmonton Oil Kings on Friday night, but that’s about it. Sebastian Cossa made 40 saves on 40 shots as he paced the Oil Kings to a huge 7-0 win at the Wayne Fleming Arena.
Edmonton used points from 10 different players for the win. They also got out to a fantastic start when Liam Keeler scored his second goal of the season just 2:39 in. Wyatt McLeod had the assist on what ended up being the game-winning goal.
”I don’t think we had a good start. We just need to keep things simple,” said Michael Milne to winnipegice.ca after the game. “If we can establish a forecheck early, we can use that to our advantage.”
With Will Gurski in net, the fire power of the Oil Kings kept coming at the young goaltender. Just 2:21 after Keeler gave Edmonton a 1-0 lead, Josh Williams netted his third of the young season. The insurance marker was assisted by Jacson Alexander.
Edmonton continued with their dominating start to the game. 3:41 later at the 8:41 mark, it was Vladimir Alistrov’s turn. He also scored his third goal of the season as Josh Williams got the primary assist while Wyatt McLeod had the secondary.
Edmonton ended up scoring three goals in the first. The three players that scored have now combined for eight goals this season.
It took a while to find any offence in the second, but when it finally started, there were a couple goals in a hurry. Connor McDonald scored the first and only unassisted goal of the game at the 13:17 mark of the second. The goal made it 4-0 for Edmonton, but they weren’t done yet.
Just over a minute later, at the 14:34 mark, Riley Sawchuk got in on the action. He scored his team-leading fourth goal of the campaign. David Kope had the lone assist.
Up 5-0, the Oil Kings continued to exploit Gurski in the third. 9:48 into the final period, Josh Williams set up Scott Atkinson who scored his third goal of the season.
At the 11:13 mark, Edmonton scored their touchdown. This time it was the second goal of the season by Jake Neighbours with David Kope and Riley Sawchuk earning the assists.
“We have to learn from this, park it and move on,” said James Patrick to Winnipegice.ca after the game. “We’re playing a very talented team on Saturday who also lost on Friday, and they’ll be hungry.”
Vancouver rolls into the Wayne Fleming Arena on Saturday.
“We just have to bounce back,” concluded Milne.
Edmonton finished with 35 shots in the game.
ICE CHIPS:
- Josh Williams and Riley Sawchuk both had great nights. They now have a combined 17 points this season. Williams has nine, while Sawchuk is just behind with eight.
- The loss snaps Winnipeg’s three-game point streak. They dropped to 3-2-1.
- Edmonton is now 3-1-2.
- Matthew Savoie was back in the lineup for Winnipeg after not playing last weekend.
- The win snaps Edmonton’s three-game losing streak. Two of the losses were in overtime.
- Cossa’s shutout was his first in his first WHL game.
