WHL Edmonton Oil Kings

Wheat Kings Edge Oil Kings 2 - 1

Published on January 28, 2009 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Edmonton Oil Kings News Release


Edmonton, AB - The Edmonton Oil Kings and Brandon Wheat Kings always seem to play really close, entertaining hockey games. Wednesday night at Rexall Place was no exception. The Oil Kings got off to a terrific start and had a great finish but the Brandon Wheat Kings held on for a 2 - 1 win. Both goalies played great and Scott Glennie's shorthanded, unassisted goal turned out to be the winner as the Wheat Kings extend their winning streak to 4 games and strengthened their hold on third place in the WHL's Eastern Conference.

"I thought we had a great start." described Oil Kings Head Coach Steven Pleau. "We were outshooting them 18 - 4. It's all in our head. If we stick to our structure and stick to our game plan, we're a good team. For probably 15 minutes in the second period, we got away from it. We started doing things we shouldn't do. We started to watch them play. They've got so much skill, they can make the drop passes and the fancy little plays and we thought maybe we can give that a shot - but that doesn't happen."

"The strength of our team is we keep it simple." stated Oil Kings co-captain Jeff Lee. "We work really hard and we get chances off our work ethic and we can't be using fancy plays like that. It's just not our style of game. We're not a team built for that kind of hockey. We had a great first period I thought and then the second period we didn't follow it up very good. They had guys sneaking around us for breakaways and bad mental errors that we just can't have."

The Oil Kings got off to a terrific start in this one and controlled most the play in the first period. 2 of the best chances to open the scoring came from Oil Kings' rookie Logan Proulx who was driving hard to the net but couldn't deposit a rebound home on the backhand about 5 minutes into the game. Brett Breitkreuz also had a glorious chance in tight on Wheat Kings goalie James Priestner but his move to the backhand was stopped as well. Brandon also came close on a goal mouth scramble in the later stages of the opening period as a puck squirted loose and trickled through the blue paint past a sprawling Torrie Jung but it slid just by the far side. Edmonton was outshooting Brandon 13 - 4 through 20 minutes but it was still 0 - 0.

Brandon finally opened the scoring just over 7 minutes into the second period. Darren Bestland centered a pass for veteran Matt Lowry in the slot. His first shot was blocked by defenseman Mark Pysyk but the rebound didn't go very far and Lowry made good on his second attempt. Lowry's 11th goal and 57th point made it 1 - 0.

The Oil Kings got into a little trouble on their powerplay in this game. A turnover resulted in a shorthanded breakaway for Matt Calvert. He had to make a quick move with Brandon Lockerby barreling down on him while back checking. Torrie Jung made a nice stop on the deke and Lockerby went crashing into the net and then into the end boards.

Edmonton turned the puck over again and this time, Scott Glennie made no mistake scoring his 26th goal of the season and second shorthanded marker of the campaign to give the visitors a 2 nothing lead.

The second period could've been a lot worse if Torrie Jung wasn't sharp. Another Brandon breakaway was broken up by Brent Raedeke hustling back but he chopped the stick of Andrew Clark right out of his hand and the referee immediately signaled for a penalty shot. Clark tried a deke to his backhand but Jung slid across to make a nice pad save and keep it a 2 nothing game heading into the second intermission.

The Oil Kings thought they had an answer for Priestner just :28 seconds into the third period. Brent Raedeke just fired a shot on net from the top of the circle coming down the wing. Priestner made the first save but the rebound popped up for T.J. Foster who was driving to the net and it went off his glove and in. Referee Derek Herman ruled it no goal and the Oil Kings still had their work cut out for them.

It didn't seem to phase them too much. They had another great chance to score about :40 seconds later. A 3 on 2 developed where Craig McCallum dished to Brenden Dowd who opted to go back to McCallum but he missed the puck with an open net to shoot at. It was no goal but the Oil Kings clearly had the momentum.

Edmonton's hard work paid off on the powerplay. Brent Raedeke made a couple of nice plays to keep the play alive at the Brandon blue line. He passed it to Brenden Dowd at about the hash marks who eventually worked it down low to his co-captain Jeff Lee. The 20 year old veteran had some room to step into a shot and he absolutely roofed it high on the short side. Lee's 18th of the season made it 2 - 1 with about a half period to go.

The Oil Kings threw everything they had at Brandon in the final 5 minutes and came very close to tying it when defenseman Brandon Lockerby's point shot came off the end boards hot and almost bounced off the back of Priestner and into the net. It was close but not close enough.

Edmonton drops their second straight game by a score of 2 - 1. The Oil Kings' record in 1 goal games this season is 8-4-2-4 and their overall record slips to 22-26-2-4. Next up for Edmonton will be a record setting night Saturday. The largest crowd in franchise history will be at Rexall to watch the Oil Kings host the Oilers first round draft pick Jordan Eberle and the Regina Pats. Over 11,000 tickets have already been sold for that game. The first 4000 fans to Rexall Place will also receive the new novel Oil Kings Glory courtesy of Schlumberger and the Literacy For Life Program.

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Western Hockey League Stories from January 28, 2009


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