WHL Edmonton Oil Kings

Confidence High After Oil Kings Win Fourth In A Row

February 24, 2010 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Edmonton Oil Kings News Release


EDMONTON, AB- The Edmonton Oil Kings have struggled with confidence for most of this season, but right now, their confidence is beaming. After enduring some of their toughest stretches this season, the Oil Kings have shown that they are a team that could put some fear into teams battling for playoff spots down the stretch.

Edmonton matched their season high winning streak to four games with a decisive 5-1 win over the visiting Kamloops Blazers Wednesday night at Rexall Place.

"Right now it's been fun to play the game and it hasn't been fun to play the game in a long time," said Oil Kings head coach Steve Pleau.

"Just winning one game can spark the confidence. You get a bounce, you get a save and then all of a sudden you start to believe.

"It's been a long arduous process, but you can say that tonight we played hard and we did a lot of the little things we wanted to do."

The Oil Kings offence was all spread out as Mike Piluso, Garry Nunn, T.J. Foster, Klarc Wilson and Sebastian Svendsen found the back of the net for the Oil Kings, who improve their record to 16-36-4-8.

Cam Lanigan made 19 saves to improve his record to 7-11-2-3. The 17-year-old has won his last three starts.

Piluso opened the scoring just 4:50 into the contest when he walked out of the corner and sniped his 13th goal of the season over the shoulder of Blazers goaltender Kurtis Mucha and off the cross bar and in to give Edmonton an early 1-0 lead.

Nunn continued his torrid pace as of late, and did some damage short-handed when he picked off a cross-ice pass and broke in all alone and undressed Mucha with a beautiful move.

It was Nunn's 17th goal of the season and the Oil Kings first short-handed goal since Jan.15 when Rhett Rachinski scored one in a 5-2 loss in Regina.

The Blazers spoiled Lanigan's shutout bid with the only goal in the second period when Jordan DePape made a nice move through the Oil Kings defence and tucked the puck through the five hole of Lanigan to cut the Oil Kings lead to 2-1.

That was the only blemish on Lanigan's night. The Calgary product made some key saves early in the first and then absolutely stoned Blazers forward Brendan Ranford early in the third that sparked the Oil King offensive explosion with three goals in the third.

Lanigan looked down and out in his crease, but managed to make a swim move and swipe the puck away with his stick while on his back for the save of the night. He followed it up with a leg save Colin Smith, who was crashing the net.

"Lyle's (Mast) done a great job with him all year and when your team struggles your goaltending can be hung out to dry at times. Now we've started to play better and he's certainly played better," said Pleau.

"Early we got some big saves at key times (from Lanigan) and we're playing like a team and it's great to see, the guys deserve it."

Lately, the Oil Kings goal scoring success has come from playing physical and crashing the net and getting to the dirty areas.

Wednesday night, they continued their physical play, but many of their goals were of the highlight reel variety.

T.J. Foster's third period goal to give the Oil Kings insurance was the nicest of the bunch as he split the Blazers defence and beat Mucha with a quick snap shot under the cross-bar.

"I think we get possession of the puck through that. That's our avenue to success. I didn't look at the (final) totals, but through two periods we had 61 hits so that's pretty darn good. If you're on the body like that you're going to be creating turnovers," said Pleau.

"The skill came out and Foster's goal was absolutely beautiful. He didn't slow down one bit and Nunnsy's goal was a beautiful goal and that's a hell of a goalie (Mucha) in the nets."

Edmonton will continue their busy week at home when they face the defending Western Hockey League champions on Friday February 26th in what is another Jersey Friday night. They will then battle their division rival Red Deer Rebels on Saturday February 27th, which is another Celebrity Saturday when Oil Kings alumni and current Edmonton Oilers head coach will be in attendance.

Tickets are available by visiting oilkings.ca, any ticketmaster location or by calling 780-414-GOAL.

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Western Hockey League Stories from February 24, 2010


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