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Edmonton Oil Kings

Oil Kings Must Wait for Playoff Opponent

March 16, 2014 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Edmonton Oil Kings News Release


Edmonton, AB - The Edmonton Oil Kings will have to wait a few more days before finding out their playoff opponent.

Edmonton (50-19-2-1) lost 5-0 to the Red Deer Rebels (35-32-1-4) in their final game of the season Sunday in front of a season-high 13,912 fans at Rexall Place, a game that meant absolutely nothing to the Oil Kings, who clinched the conference's top spot, but the world to the Rebels.

"It looked like one team was already in the playoffs and the other team was trying to get into the playoffs," said Oil Kings head coach Derek Laxdal.

With the win, Red Deer ties Prince Albert for eighth in the WHL Eastern Conference and will host the Raiders in a one-game playoff for the final playoff spot Tuesday. The winner of that game will face the Oil Kings in the first round of the playoffs.

"Obviously we accomplished what we needed to last night, and it's the last game of the regular season - guys are kind of worn out - but it's a tough one for sure," said Oil Kings forward Mitch Moroz.

Adam Musil, Scott Feser, Haydn Fleury, Wyatt Johnson and Rhyse Dieno all scored for Red Deer, while Patrik Bartosak made 20 saves for the shutout.

Oil Kings Netminder Tyler Santos stopped 33 pucks in a losing effort.

With first place in the conference sewn up, the Oil Kings rested some banged up players, including Blake Orban, Griffin Reinhart, Henrik Samuelsson, Brandon Baddock, Reid Petryk, Edgars Kulda and Curtis Lazar, giving some experience to the younger players on the roster. Affiliate players Garan Magnes and Brayden Brown, in his first WHL game, suited up for Edmonton.

"We've got some guys with some nagging injuries that have battled through, and we've got some guys with some sicknesses, and we're not going to push these guys to the limit and force them to play injured," Laxdal explained.

"It was good to get the young guys in the lineup," added defenceman Cody Corbett. "It's tough being 15, 16 years old and coming in to a league like this. ... They battled hard, they played hard and it's good to be able to get into a game like this."

Oil Kings fan Shane Caume was the big winner of Fan Appreciation Night, taking home a 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan in the biggest of over 4000 giveaways on the night.

The Oil Kings will now have a week off to prepare for their first game of the playoffs, which goes Saturday, March 22 at 1:30 p.m. at Rexall Place. Tickets are on sale now and available at oilkings.ca, the Rexall Place box office or any Ticketmaster outlet.

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