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WHL Edmonton Oil Kings

Crown Chronicles: Heroic Performances

March 8, 2022 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Edmonton Oil Kings News Release


The Edmonton Oil Kings are riding a season-high 11-game win streak after skating to a trio of convincing wins against Central Division rivals this past week.

The Oil Kings opened their week by setting a new franchise record and closed it by tying another. The Oil Kings allowed a franchise-low 10 shots against to the Medicine Hat Tigers in a win on Wednesday to open their week before sweeping a home-and-home weekend set against the Calgary Hitmen with a pair of five-goal victories to push their current win streak to 11, matching a franchise-high.

Sitting at 41-11-2-1 on the season, the Oil Kings are five points up on the Everett Silvertips for top spot in the entire Western Hockey League while maintaining an eight-point cushion atop the Eastern Conference standings over the Winnipeg ICE and leading the Red Deer Rebels by 10 points for top spot in the Central Division.

Highlight of the Week

Justin Sourdif even had the Calgary faithful buzzing on Saturday afternoon after he walked his way around a Hitmen defender and roofed a shot against the Hitmen.

Weekly Review

Oil Kings 5 vs Medicine Hat Tigers 2 (Wednesday)

The Oil Kings got goals from five different players, while 11 different skaters recorded at least a point in a cerebral win over the Tigers that saw the team allow a franchise low 10 shots on net. Punctuating the win in the third period, the Oil Kings allowed just one shot to the Tigers, marking the second time this season the team has done that.

Oil Kings 7 vs Calgary Hitmen 2 (Friday)

The Oil Kings hosted more than 20 Superhero characters at Rogers Place in their annual Superhero night; that number doesn't include the additional 20 heroes in the Edmonton lineup that night. And like any good Superhero, the Oil Kings were adorned in a spiffy suit of armour that were auctioned off during the game with the net proceeds benefitting a local charity. In total, 14 different players picked up a point while the seven goals were spread out amongst seven different skaters.

Oil Kings 6 @ Calgary Hitmen 1 (Saturday)

The Oil Kings extended their win streak to a franchise tying best 11 games in a game in which Dylan Guenther filled up the score sheet. The Arizona Coyotes prospect tallied two goals, two assists and even dropped his mitts to garner his first career fighting major and Gordie Howe hat-trick. The Oil Kings scored in all three facets of the game with Guenther providing the team with their league-leading 14th shorthanded goal of the season. Josh Williams tacked on a pair of goals and an assist in the win.

Three Stars of the Week

3. #42 Justin Sourdif - It's safe to say that the Florida Panthers third-rounder has become really comfortable in #TheKingdom after being acquired from the Vancouver Giants back on the WHL's Trade Deadline Day in January. Last week he notched five points (1G, 4A) in three games to run his current point streak to nine games (5G, 12A). This is the second longest point streak of his four-year WHL career after enjoying a run of 10 straight games with a point from January 26 to February 21, 2020. In 17 games since joining the Oil Kings, he has amassed 24 points (7G, 17A).

2. #14 Josh Williams - The Oil Kings alternate captain, and leading scorer, continued his scoring ways last week as he grabbed six points (3G, 3A) in three games. His two-goal performance on Saturday against the Hitmen made him a 30-goal scorer for the first time in his WHL career. The undrafted NHL free agent has been garnering the attention of NHL scouts for quite some time now but maybe even more so as he has pushed his way into the top 5 in WHL scoring this season with 71 points (30G, 41A) in 54 games; his 30 goals ranks 9th amongst all WHL skaters as well.

1. #11 Dylan Guenther - The Arizona Coyotes first-rounder continues to raise his game to new heights as last week he not only continued his torrid scoring pace with six points (3G, 3A) in three games, but also shed his gloves for what can only be described as a...spirited...scrap for his first career fighting major as he took on Trey Patterson of the Calgary Hitmen on Saturday afternoon. The local product currently sits 3rd in the WHL's goal scoring race with 36 goals and is 6th in points with 70 (36G, 34A).

Quick Hits

The Oil Kings became the first Eastern Conference team to clinch a spot in the 2022 WHL Playoffs with their win on Friday night over the Hitmen. To date, five other teams have secured spots in this year's post-season; Everett Silvertips, Kamloops Blazers, Portland Winterhawks, Seattle Thunderbirds and Kelowna Rockets.

The Oil Kings saw contributions up and down their lineup this past week with several of their youngsters providing a big-time offensive punch. Each of Shea Van Olm, Cole Miller and Dawson Seitz have two goals apiece in their last four games, while defenceman Carter Kowalyk notched his first career multi-point game with two assists on Friday against the Hitmen. Rookie netminder Kolby Hay is currently enjoying a personal six-game win streak.

Several Oil Kings continue to push their way up the franchises all-time lists; Between the pipes, Sebastian Cossa has moved to 3rd all-time in wins (66), 2nd all-time in shutouts (13) and 5th all-time in saves (2161). Carter Souch ranks 7th all-time in points (180), 5th all-time in assists (123) and 10th all-time in games played (247). Jake Neighbours sits 9th all-time in points (172) and 7th all-time in assists (114). Josh Williams and Dylan Guenther rank 8th all-time in goals (77).

On Wednesday, March 2, the Oil Kings recorded the franchises 500th WHL win in its 1000th WHL game in modern franchise history.

Under the guidance of General Manager Kirt Hill, Head Coach Brad Lauer and Assistant Coach Luke Pierce, the Oil Kings have gone 145-43-12-10 over the past four seasons for a win-percentage of .690 and a point-percentage of .743.

Four Oil Kings alumni will be competing in next weekend's USPORTS CW Final as the University of Alberta Golden Bears (Wyatt McLeod) take on the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds (Scott Atkinson, Quinn Benjafield and Conner McDonald). The best-of-three series is set take place at the Clare Drake Arena from March 18-20.

Next Up

The Oil Kings hit the road for three games this week starting with a date with the Medicine Hat Tigers on Wednesday before wrapping up the trip with a double feature in Swift Current with a pair of tilts with the Broncos in Speedy Creek on Friday and Saturday.

The Oil Kings have won five straight games against the Tigers and are 5-0-0-1 against them this season.

The Oil Kings are 4-0-0-0 against the Broncos this season.

You can listen to all three games this week, and any Oil Kings game for that matter, at oilkings.ca/radio.

Edmonton Oil Kings Season Seats, Flex-Packs, Weekend Passes and Single-Game tickets, for as low as $20 per game, are currently on sale at oilkings.ca.

The Oil Kings next home game is Wednesday, March 16 when they welcome the Saskatoon Blades to Rogers Place at 7:00 PM.

Check out the Edmonton Oil Kings Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from March 8, 2022


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