WHL Edmonton Oil Kings

Oil Kings Dropped by Ice in OT

Published on October 27, 2015 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Edmonton Oil Kings News Release


EDMONTON, ALTA. - In the midst of the franchise's longest losing streak in five years, Edmonton Oil Kings head coach Steve Hamilton is preaching a positive message about his team.

"I like our group. It's tough to say after you've lost seven in a row that you like your group, but I wholeheartedly believe that," Hamilton said following his team's 5-4 overtime loss to the Kootenay Ice Monday night at Rexall Place. "They're good guys. They care. They care a lot. They're as disheartened as anybody.

"We will continue (to work) at this thing. We have some areas that we need to get better at, there's no question, but our guys care, and they'll take it to heart."

Zak Zborosky scored the overtime winner for the Ice (3-11-1-0), his fourth point on the night, to hand the Oil Kings (3-7-3-0) their seventh straight loss, the team's longest losing streak since dropping nine in a row from Oct. 15 to Nov. 5, 2010.

"It's tough because we are doing so many positive things," Hamilton said. "I refuse to throw our guys under the bus. I refuse to say they don't work hard or they don't practice hard or they don't care because all of them do."

"Right now, it's just a matter of finding that one thing that's missing," added Oil Kings forward Colton Kehler. "We've just got to stick to it."

Some of those positives were evident: the Oil Kings fought back from three one-goal deficits to force overtime and earn a point; the team scored four goals in regulation play for the first time this season; the power play finished 2-4, and while the team gave up a five-on-three goal against, the penalty kill evened it out with a shorthanded tally.

"I think tonight we got pucks to the net and got after it, really battled hard in those low areas around the paint and mucked through," said Oil Kings forward Ben Carroll.

"That's kind of been our M.O. this year: we get down, but we're never short when we're trying to climb back into things. We always find a way to claw back," Kehler added.

On the flip side, the Oil Kings suffered from defensive breakdowns, leading to five goals for the lowest scoring team in the WHL.

"(We need to) keep our systems tight. We had a few miscommunications in the corners and guys rolling out into pretty high quality areas. We need to eliminate that for sure," Carroll said.

"We're finding different ways to debacle ourselves. Tonight was just an example of a pretty generic rush for them," Hamilton said about Zborosky's winning goal. "It's not as though they had a huge amount of advantage in that rush, and we didn't play it as well as we could of and it just winds up as one shot. It was a pretty disappointing end."

Tyler Robertson had a pair of goals - one on the power play and one shorthanded -- and an assist for Edmonton, while Aaron Irving had the game tying goal with a power play blast and added an assist. Brandon Baddock, playing in his 200th career WHL game, also scored for Edmonton. Alec Dillon got the start, stopping 12 of 14 shots faced, but left the game after the first period with an injury. Patrick Dea stopped 10 of 13 shots in relief.

Zborosky finished with two goals and two assists for Kootenay, while Luke Philp had a goal and three assists. Matt Alfaro and Jason Wenzel also scored for the Ice. Wyatt Hoflin made 30 saves to get the win.

Edmonton now heads out on the road for a pair of games Wednesday in Prince Albert and Thursday in Saskatoon. They return home Sunday to take on the Spokane Chiefs at 4 p.m. at Rexall Place.

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