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WHL Edmonton Oil Kings

Oil Kings Win Ninth Straight, Beat Calgary 5-2

March 27, 2021 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Edmonton Oil Kings News Release


Edmonton, AB - The Edmonton Oil Kings (9-0-0-0) started strong but finished even stronger Saturday afternoon as they collected their ninth-straight win to open the season defeating the Calgary Hitmen (4-5-1-0) by a 5-2 final at the Seven Chiefs Sportsplex.

"We've talked about that this whole season, getting better throughout the weekend not just within the game," said Oil Kings assistant coach Luke Pierce. "It was certainly a focus of ours, keep making small adjustments and growing our game as we went along. Much like we saw last weekend our best period was our third periods."

Jake Neighbours paced the offence with two goals and an assist, while linemate Dylan Guenther had a goal and two assists and Kaid Oliver added a goal, rounding out a big afternoon for the line.

"They were pretty determined for sure," added Pierce on his top line. "You could see their frustration last night, credit to Calgary for checking them and shutting them down but those guys are pretty determined players and are tough to shut down for too long and it was good to see them rewarded for their effort today."

The Oil Kings also got big contributions from their second line with captain Scott Atkinson picking up a goal and an assist and Carter Souch notching two assists, including his 100th career WHL point.

"Those two have been a really good tandem for us," said Pierce. "It really showed how much we missed Carter yesterday so to have his energy back in our lineup today was great. We're going to continue to need that secondary scoring as it helps alleviate some of the pressure from our top guys."

A pair of rookie defenceman for the Oil Kings would also get in on the offence as both Ross Stanley and Matt Smith picked up their first career WHL points with assists. The game was Smith's WHL debut.

"Both are popular teammates here," said Pierce. "For Smitty (Matt Smith) to get into his first game here, that's big and I thought he gave us some valuable minutes. Ross has been consistently getting better here every day, it's a credit to those guys for being able to fill in some heavy minutes on the road."

Between the pipes, Sebastian Cossa was rock solid once again stopping 29 of 31 Hitmen shots for his eighth straight win. The Oil Kings would outshoot the Hitmen 45-31 on the afternoon.

"Today he was really settled in," commented Pierce on his goaltender. "He was calm. We lost Keagan Slaney early and with Ethan Cap already out, our backend was pretty young. We gave up some chances but that's what elite goaltending is for and he certainly provided that today."

The Oil King opened the scoring in the late stages of a defensive minded first period, finally breaking through on a stingy Hitmen defence as Atkinson lasered a shot on goal from the right-wing circle, off the pad of Hitmen goaltender Brayden Peters and right to Guenther for his league leading ninth goal of the season at the 16:18 mark.

The score stayed 1-0 in favor of the visitors until the late stages of the second period where the game would start to open up. On a two-on-two rush into the Hitmen zone, Guenther skated into the right-circle and slithered a cross-seam pass to an on-rushing Neighbours who slammed the puck into the back of the net at the 14:19 mark of the period. The Hitmen countered quickly getting a shorthanded goal from Sean Tschigerl just over three minutes later as he was able to shovel a loose puck behind Cossa during a net-front scramble to get the Hitmen within a goal heading to the third period.

The Oil Kings started to put the game out of reach early in the third period. On a power play just 1:53 into the final frame, Neighbours took a cross-ice pass from Guenther and one-timed in a shot from the right-wing circle. Atkinson added to the lead just 2:28 later as he tipped in a centering feed from Souch from the right-wing corner. Riley Stotts would get one goal back for the Hitmen as he cleaned up the garbage in front of the Edmonton net after a Jackson van de Leest point-shot was stopped by Cossa. Oliver provided the dagger on the afternoon for the Oil Kings as at the 14:45 mark of the period he buried an off-balanced Neighbours centering pass at the top of the Hitmen crease.

The Oil Kings are back in action Sunday afternoon at 4 PM when they welcome the Hitmen to the Downtown Community Arena.

Notes:

The Oil Kings are now 15-1-3-0 in their last 19 regular season games against the Hitmen.

The Oil Kings played this afternoon without forward Josh William and defenceman Ethan Cap, both are expected to return to the lineup Sunday.

Jake Neighbours extended his point streak to nine game with two goals and an assist (4G, 12A). He is now second in league scoring with 16 points, trailing only teammate Dylan Guenther who has 18 points.

Carter Souch extended his point streak to three games with two assists (0G, 5A).

Carson Latimer extended his point streak to three game with an assist (1G, 3A).

Dylan Guenther has now recorded multi-point games in six of the eight games he's played this year.

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