WHL Edmonton Oil Kings

Oil Kings giant effort comes up short against Vancouver

January 8, 2010 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Edmonton Oil Kings News Release


EDMONTON, AB- The Edmonton Oil Kings were trying to make history Friday night against the Vancouver Giants.

They garnered some as they tried to earn their first win in modern franchise history against one of the Western Conference powerhouses.

Klarc Wilson scored his first WHL goal, while defenceman Braeden Laroque tallied his first WHL point, but the Giants found a way to come up with a 5-3 victory over the Oil Kings in what was one of their strongest efforts of the season.

The loss drops the Oil Kings record to 10-23-4-6, and they are 0-6 lifetime against Vancouver.

"You can't fault the effort and you can't fault the compete level. I really liked a lot of things out there that I saw," said Oil Kings head coach Steve Pleau.

"It came down to us taking a couple of penalties we didn't need to take. They capitalized and that's what good teams do. Maybe a couple of mental mistakes cost us."

The Oil Kings were on their heels to start the period as they were outshot 10-2, but Oil Kings goaltender Cam Lanigan was very strong as he made his third consecutive start in net for Edmonton.

Tomas Vincour scored his team leading 17th goal of the season in his return to the lineup from the World Juniors and rookie Dylan Wruck scored his fourth to give the Oil Kings a 2-0 lead after the opening period.

Unfortunately, Edmonton lost the services of Vincour and standout defenceman Mark Pysyk after the first period as they left the game for undisclosed reasons.

Vancouver had more spark in their step in the second period and Kevin Connauton and Connor Redmond and Neil Manning scored three straight times to give Vancouver their first lead at the 11:15 mark of the second period.

But despite being without Vincour and Pysyk, the Oil Kings showed some resiliency, leading to Wilson's first WHL goal.

"We won those little battles. I thought all three or three and a half lines did a good job. The key to the forecheck was our defenceman were much more involved tonight and I thought they looked confident," added Pleau.

"When those guys know they are going to play a lot you lose that feeling of being afraid to make a mistake and it ended up being a real good hockey game."

WHL leading scorer Craig Cunningham would score his 24th goal of the season and league leading 66th point with a power play marker with just 25 seconds left in the second period.

Cunningham was given a little too much time in the slot as he slid the puck past a stretched out Lanigan, who was solid making 30 saves in the loss.

Despite going 0-2-1 in his last three starts the young netminder went a stretch of over six weeks without a start, but Lanigan has looked very sharp and is gaining confidence in himself and the Oil Kings head coach.

"This was one game that I wanted to see how he reacted," said Pleau.

"We've struggled against this team in the past and I wanted to see where our will to win was going to be and where's he going to be when the game was on the line, and I thought he was tremendous tonight."

Veteran forward Brett Breitkreuz come up with one of his best games of the season. He took charge early in the first period and practically led the Oil Kings to within victory. He was in on all three Oil Kings goals and was a force both on the scoresheet and physically for Edmonton.

He finished the game with three assists and was the game's first star.

"He was excellent tonight," said Pleau.

"It's your challenge as a coach to try and get him to play like that every night because he showed you what he can do. He dominated that game against one of the best teams in the league."

The Oil Kings next action is tomorrow night (January, 9th) against the visiting Swift Current Broncos. Help the Oil Kings in welcoming the Olympic Torch Relay and the 2010 Olympics with a special opening ceremony with Mayor Stephen Mandel and Olympic torch bearers.

For tickets call any ticketmaster location or call 780 414 GOAL , or visit oilkings.ca.

Check out the Edmonton Oil Kings Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from January 8, 2010


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