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WHL Edmonton Oil Kings

Preview: Oil Kings vs. Saskatoon Blades

October 11, 2023 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Edmonton Oil Kings News Release


EDMONTON OIL KINGS (3-4-0-1) vs. SASKATOON BLADES (4-2-0-0) - October 11, 2023 - Rogers Place - 7:00 PM

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2023-24 Schedule vs. Saskatoon

Wednesday, Oct 4 @ Saskatoon (5-3 SAS)

Wednesday, Oct 11 @ Edmonton

Sunday, Jan 21 @ Edmonton

Saturday, Mar 9 @ Saskatoon

2023-24 vs. Saskatoon: 0-1-0-0 Home: 0-0-0-0 Away: 0-1-0-0 PP: 0/4 (0.0%) PK: 3/5 (40.0%)

2022-23 vs. Saskatoon: 0-4-0-0 Home: 0-2-0-0 Away: 0-2-0-0 PP: 0/15 (12.5%) PK: 4/17 (76.5%)

Who We're Watching

#24 Marc Lajoie

Veteran Oil Kings defenceman Marc Lajoie is in his first season with the Oil Kings after spending the first four years of his WHL career in Tri-City playing for the Americans and even captained the Americans during the 2022-23 season. The Oil Kings acquired the 6-foot-6, 223-pound defenceman at this past spring's WHL Prospects Draft giving the St. Albert, AB product the opportunity to play his final season in the WHL in his hometown and under the guidance of his father, Oil Kings assistant coach Serge Lajoie. So far, it has been a seamless transition for Lajoie in Edmonton as he is one of the top point-producing defencemen in the WHL to date and is tied for the league's best plus/minus rating. Entering tonight's game, he is riding a three-game point streak (1G, 2A) and is flirting with a major career milestone as he is just one point shy of 100 for his WHL career.

Quotable

"Preparation is a big key and this guy puts in a lot of work. You don't see the hours he puts in at the rink getting himself ready and recovering and taking care of a big frame. His ability to understand shift-to-shift that some shifts you just have to live and survive for 45 seconds and nothing good or bad is coming from the shift but it's just a fraction of time you're getting through and then identifying the shifts that are really critical and seeing opportunities to generate and create offence as well as seeing opportunities to kill and end plays defensively. For a big man he plays an efficient style and he's been a great addition to our group." - Oil Kings head coach Luke Pierce on Marc Lajoie

Matchup Notes

Tonight marks the second of four meetings this season between the Oil Kings and Blades, and second of two in the last eight days.

The Blades opened the season series with a 5-3 win at the SaskTel Centre last Wednesday. Adam Jecho, Rilen Kovacevic and Aidan Litke scored in the game and had an assist for the Oil Kings while it was the duo of Brandon Lisowsky and Egor Sidorov doing the damage for the Blades as the two combined for all five Saskatoon goals with Lisowsky registering his fifth career hat-trick.

Between the pipes, it was a busy night for Logan Cunningham as he gave the Oil Kings a punchers chance in the game on the second half of back-to-back games by making 32 saves in the losing effort. Austin Elliott turned in 16 saves for his second career win over the Oil Kings.

Specialty teams proved costly in the game for the Oil Kings as they were unable to connect on any of their four power play looks, while the Blades tallied three on three consecutive second period man-advantage situations.

This evening's matchup is the 64th all-time regular season meeting between the two teams with the Oil Kings holding a record of 32-26-3-2.

The Oil Kings enter tonight's game looking to shake off a three-game losing streak after losses to the Blades (5-3), Prince Albert Raiders (4-1) and Lethbridge Hurricanes (5-2).

The Blades meanwhile come in riding a two-game win streak and are 4-2-0-0 on the season.

Both teams have been busy on the trade front this week with the Oil Kings acquiring 2005-born forward Roan Woodward from the Everett Silvertips for a lone draft pick, while the Blades have acquired 2004-born defenceman Grayden Siepmann from the Calgary Hitmen for 2006-born defenceman Fraser Leonard and three draft picks, and also picked up overage forward, and reigning WHL Player of the Week, Easton Armstrong from the Wenatchee Wild for a pair of picks.

Milestone Watch

D Carter Kowalyk is 2 games away from 100 career games.

F Nathan Pilling is 7 games away from 100 career games.

F John Szabo is 7 games away from 100 career games.

F Ty Nash is 3 goals away from 50 career goals.

D Marc Lajoie is 1 point away from 100 career points.

Lineup Report

F Ty Nash, upper-body, month-to-month (Games missed: 8).

D Carter Kowalyk, upper-body, month-to-month (Games missed: 7).

F Nathan Pilling, upper-body, day-to-day (Games missed: 1).

Streaks

F Adam Jecho is on a 5-game point streak (5G-4A-9PTS).

D Marc Lajoie is on a 3-game point streak (1G-2A-3PTS).

Who's Hot

F Rilen Kovacevic has 13 points (7G, 6A) in his last 18 games and 18 points (9G, 9A) in his last 25 games.*

F Marshall Finnie has 7 points (5G, 2A) in his last 9 games.*

D Parker Alcos has 4 points (0G, 4A) in his last 8 games.

F Adam Jecho has 10 points (5G, 5A) in his last 8 games.

F Aidan Litke has 10 points (3G, 7A) in his last 7 games.

F Ty Nash has 4 points (2G, 2A) in his last 6 games.*

*Dating back to last regular season

League Leaders

F Aidan Litke currently sits T12th in the WHL in points (10) and T7th in assists (7).

F Adam Jecho currently sits T12th in the WHL in points (10), T3rd in WHL points by a rookie (10) and T2nd in WHL in GWG (2).

D Parker Alcos currently leads all WHL rookie defencemen in points (4).

D Marc Lajoie currently sits T1st in the WHL in plus/minus (+11) and T6th in WHL defencemen points (6).

Check out the Edmonton Oil Kings Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from October 11, 2023


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