WHL Edmonton Oil Kings

Oil Kings Back on Winning Track

Published on January 20, 2016 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Edmonton Oil Kings News Release


The Edmonton Oil Kings got some much needed rest yesterday before returning to business today against the Moose Jaw Warriors. That business included outshooting their opponent 37-33 leading to a convincing 3-1 win.

Goaltender Payton Lee continued his very impressive play stopping 32 of 33 shots for the win and the Oil Kings finally scored on the powerplay. Brett Pollock also contributed with a goal and an assist.

Head Coach Steve Hamilton was impressed with Lee and the effort all the Oil Kings put forward tonight.

"Payton was excellent tonight," said Hamilton. "Again he strung together some quality starts and anytime you are only giving up one, you have a chance to win. And that certainly has been a pretty critical piece for us in the last stretch after Christmas. We haven't always had the opportunity to talk after the game to the guys and (tell them) the outcome matched the effort, so tonight it was nice to go in and say that"

Tyson Gruninger got things started in the first for Edmonton when he stole the puck off of Moose Jaw's Colin Paradis and rifled home his 4th on the year beating Brody Willms short side.

With two minutes remaining in the period Brett Pollock got on the scoresheet going high glove side on Willms for his 18th goal of the season and team-leading 48th point. Lane Bauer and Anatolii Elizarov assisted on the goal. The assist was Elizarov's second point in three games.

The Oil Kings had struggled as of late with the man advantage, but Dario Meyer fixed that when he scored his 6th on the season banging home a Pollock rebound making it 3-0 for Edmonton. That was all the scoring they would need cruising to a 3-1 win.

"First, I am happy about the win," said Meyer about getting the team a powerplay goal. "We had a couple of losses, but we had a good start and I am happy about the win. We made some changes and Hammy (Hamilton) gave us a couple of ideas and we worked at them and it happened."

Moose Jaw's Patrik Maier scored late in the third, which the officials had waived off immediately due to goaltender interference on Lee. But after discussing it amongst themselves they determined it was a good goal and no penalty was called on the Warriors.

The Oil Kings, however, did not let that affect them, shutting down the Warriors for the rest of the game including withstanding a three minute 6-on-5 as Moose Jaw pulled Willms for an extra attacker at 16:55.

Edmonton will be back in action Friday night for a rare home game vs the Everett Silvertips. Game time is 7pm at Rexall Place.

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Western Hockey League Stories from January 20, 2016


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