WHL Edmonton Oil Kings

Oil Kings Win Second Straight Against The Pats

Published on February 6, 2009 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Edmonton Oil Kings News Release


Regina, SK - Adversity is defined as a state, condition or instance of serious or continued difficulty. The Oil Kings overcame 2 instances in their opener of a long stretch of road games. Rookies Dylan Wruck and T.J. Foster came up with their biggest goals of their careers and Torrie Jung made a tremendous sacrifice in net as the Oil Kings upended the Pats in Regina 2 - 1 in a playoff style game at the Brandt Centre. Edmonton snaps a mini losing skid and grabs hold of the final playoff spot in the WHL's Eastern Conference.

The Oil Kings coaching staff and more specifically the defense corps had their work cut out for them in this game. Adrian Van de Mosselaer was seriously hurt early in the first period and left the game favoring his right leg so his team mates had to finish the night with just 5 defensemen.

Edmonton would open the scoring midway through the first period on their second powerplay of the game. Henrik Tervonen started a rush in the Oil Kings zone and slid the puck ahead for a streaking Brett Breitkreuz. He sped past Regina defenseman Colten Teubert and managed to get a backhand on net that was stopped by Linden Rowat. The juicy rebound popped out to rookie Dylan Wruck who had a wide open net to score his first WHL goal in his first WHL game.

It didn't take long for Regina to reply with a powerplay goal of their own. Regina defenseman Matt Robertson made an aggressive play at the Oil Kings line to keep the puck in Edmonton's zone. Then the two Jordan's hooked up. Jordan Weal slid a pass over to Oilers' first round draft pick Jordan Eberle to deflect his 28th goal of the season past a sprawling Torrie Jung who was making his 21st start in the last 22 games. Those two goals came 80 seconds apart and it was 1 - 1 heading into the first intermission.

The Oil Kings went ahead thanks to a terrific individual effort from another rookie. T.J. Foster broke into Regina's zone on what was basically a 1 on 2. He let a shot go that Linden Rowat had trouble with and Foster had the presence of mind to follow up for his own rebound. The Oil Kings Unsung Hero for the month of January beat both of the Pats' defenseman to the puck and shoved it in before the net was knocked off. Foster's 7th goal of the year made it 2 - 1 and Edmonton was outshooting Regina 13 - 2 in the middle frame.

Midway through the third period, Drew Nichol and Garrett Mitchell had a spirited fight at centre ice well behind the play. Nichol managed to land lots of shots in the first half of the fight and Mitchell replied with a few rights of his own. Nichol had the takedown and both were thrown off for 5 minutes. That meant the Oil Kings had to drop Brent Raedeke back on defense to help out the depleted defense.

Edmonton suffered another scare with about 6 minutes to go in the game. Torrie Jung took a shot right to the head and went down instantly. He left the game for precautionary reasons and back-up Cam Lanigan was forced to come into the pressure cooker. In baseball terms, he was the closer with a save opportunity and he was equal to the task.

He only had 3 touches on the puck but stood tall when the Pats pulled the goalie for the extra attacker with about 90 seconds to go. The Oil Kings forwards and defense did a tremendous job only allowing 2 shots on goal for the remainder of the game to preserve a huge 2 - 1 win.

That's a 3 game losing streak for Regina and Edmonton snaps out of a 2 game losing streak improving their record to 24-28-2-4 and more importantly break the tie for the last playoff spot they had going with Regina heading into the game. Prince Albert also lost Friday night in Brandon which means the Oil Kings have sole possession of 8th place in the Eastern Conference.

Edmonton will wrap up this 4 games in 5 nights stretch Saturday night in Brandon against the Wheat Kings. That's game 2 of 7 in a row on the road for the Oil Kings. The next home game at Rexall Place is not until February 25th against the Red Deer Rebels. That's another Weiner Wednesday featuring $2 hot dogs all night.

Check out the Edmonton Oil Kings Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Western Hockey League Stories from February 6, 2009


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central