Andy Devlin/Edmonton Oil Kings
Eastern Division

Oil Kings end Pats comeback bid with 6-3 win

Written by Kevin Shaw on

 

In the Edmonton Oil Kings annual “Hockey Hooky” Day at Rogers Place, the Oil Kings stopped a third period Regina Pats surge to beat the visitors 6-3 before 3,883 fans.

With both 17-year-old Matthew Kieper (injured on Sunday versus the Hitmen) and 18-year-old Drew Sim (injured versus the Blades on Wednesday), next up was 16-year-old, Kelton Pyne. The White City product made his WHL debut and played well for the Pats, stopping 36 of 42 Oil Kings shots. His counterpart Sebastian Cossa stopped 17 Pats shots to improve his record to 22-6-2-1. The Pats have dropped six straight games (0-5-0-1).

“I thought Pyner was very solid,” Pats head coach and general manager John Paddock told the Leader-Post’s Rob Vanstone after the game. “He gave us a chance to win.

“It was 3-3 with about 15 minutes left in the game. You couldn’t ask for much more than that.

“I thought he looked very comfortable in there, playing one of the top-ranked teams in maybe the best arena in the NHL as far as newness. It created a lot of nervous energy before the game, that’s for sure.”

Jaxsen Wiebe (seventh) and Dylan Guenther (28th) opened the scoring for the Oil Kings before the game was 10 minutes old and the game entered the first intermission 2-0 for the hometown squad. While killing a penalty the Oil Kings struck early in the second period, just 56 seconds into the middle frame the Oil Kings broke in on a two-on-one, and Jaylen Luypen (19th) buried a shorthanded goal to give Edmonton a 3-0 lead.

At 7:13 of the second period, the Oil Kings were pressing and when the whistle blew, the Oil Kings were awarded a penalty shot. Guenther (the Coyotes first-round pick in 2021) got the call to take the shot against the rookie Pat netminder. Pyne stood tall stopping the Oil King leading goal scorer cold.

The huge stop seemed to give the Pats life and under three minutes later Stanislav Svozil (third) got the Pats on the board after he picked up the loose puck in the Oil King zone and put a nifty backhand past Cossa to make the score 3-1 just before the halfway point of the game.

The Pats pulled to within a goal when Svozil notched his second of the game (fourth) on a snipe from the top of the circle after receiving a pass from Connor Bedard, the early powerplay goal just over a minute into the third period pulled the Pats to within a goal at 3-2.

Bedard, the Pats 16-year-old sniper continued the Pats comeback as he finished a three-on-one with a snipe over Cossa’s glove hand to tie the game at 3-3 just 2:16 into the third period.

Could it be? Could the Pats actually pull it off? The answer was unfortunately not.

The rally was short-lived as Jakub Demek (15th) tipped home a Luke Prokop point shot giving the Oil Kings a 4-3 lead less than two minutes after Bedard tied it for the Pats with the eventual game-winner. Simon Kubicek (12th) added some insurance with a one-time powerplay blast that beat Pyne to give Edmonton a 5-3 lead with just over eight minutes left. Josh Williams (22nd) scored with 1:34 left to deal the 6-3 win for the Oil Kings.

The Oil Kings went 2-for-7 on the powerplay while outshooting the Pats 42-40. The Pats went 1-for-4.

“They’re a good team and we haven’t been outshot like that maybe in any game except against Winnipeg this year,” Paddock said. “That’s what happens. We used to do that to teams four or five years ago. The other team has the puck more.

“They get more shots and you’re chasing, so you’re liable to get more penalties. That’s the opposition we were up against. But I thought there were some positives.”

Patterings: Svozil doubled his season goal total (now with four) in the game with his pair of markers… Luypen, Kubicek, and Bedard were named the game’s three stars… The Pats next action is Friday, February 10 at 7 p.m. at the Brandt Centre.