Spirited rally ends in heartbreak again
Hitmen storm back from three-goal deficit only to fall to the Oil Kings
New year. Same result. Another one-goal loss for the Calgary Hitmen in the Western Hockey League.
Although the Hitmen were able to rally in the final frame against the host Edmonton Oil Kings at Rogers Place on Monday, they lost 5-4 in the New Year’s Day matinee.
It was their fifth-straight onegoal loss — the other four coming to the Kootenay Ice — and their sixth-straight drop overall.
It hasn’t helped that two of their stars — Jake Bean for Canada, and Vladislav Yeryomenko for Belarus — are at the world junior hockey championships.
“We’re grinding — our young guys are filling a lot of minutes,” said Hitmen head coach Dallas Ferguson. “They’re getting the touches and getting the experience they need. We have to do our best to keep working with them and our forwards. We have an experienced group of forwards, and we have to do a better job to support them. But they’ve been chipping away and every game they seem to be getting better, so we’re happy with that.”
But they’re not happy with another loss, especially with a lousy start that had the Hitmen behind the eight-ball again.
“It’s been a little bit of a theme for the last five or six games for us — not starting on time,” Ferguson said. "The secret for any team is playing a full 60 minutes, and when you start like (we did Monday), you’re chasing the game a little bit.
“I think there are a lot of the same things being said (after the first period), just because there is a bit of a pattern with it. There is nothing you can do about the 20 minutes behind us. You just have to focus on the 40 minutes in front of us. I thought the second period we chipped away — we got one, and then gave up that one late. Then we came out in the third, and I thought we were shooting the puck a lot more and that generated a lot of inside play and scoring opportunities for us.”
Davis Koch went on to score the winning goal for the Oil Kings after the Hitmen had battled back from a 4-1 deficit in the third period to tie the game.
The contest between provincial rivals struggling to get back into the playoff picture showcased the unpredictability of junior hockey.
The Oil Kings (10-22-4-1) were all over the Hitmen (11-19-5-1) in the first period, scoring three goals and out-shooting their opponents 16-1.
Trey Fix-Wolansky had two goals in the period, while Colton Kehler netted the other on Hitmen goaltender Nick Schneider to give the Oil Kings a 3-0 lead.
In the second period, Andrei Grishankov pulled one back for the Hitmen, scoring on the power play at 6:16. The Hitmen forward got to a long rebound and fired it past Oil Kings goaltender Josh Dechaine.
David Kope scored with 1:17 left in the second on a set up from Fix-Wolansky to restore the home side’s three-goal lead.
Heading into the third up 4-1, things began to unravel quickly for the Oil Kings.
Hitmen star Mark Kastelic cut the lead to 4-2, four minutes into the period. Teammate Jacob Stukel then made it 4-3 with 8:11 left in the third, when his shot bounced off Koch’s stick and went up and in over Dechaine.
Kastelic then tied the game 4-4 with 4:24 left in the period on the power play, snapping a shot over the shoulder of Dechaine.
Things were not tied for long, however, as Koch scored 50 second later, getting to a rebound in front and lifting a shot over the Schneider for the game-winner.
“The end result was a win — the process to get there was a little uneven,” said Oil Kings head coach Steve Hamilton. "The first period was a very textbook approach to our game plan, and the second period, with all kinds of penalties for and against, we didn’t respond very well with our special teams.
“Then you get to the third period, and we do a few bizarre things and set the table for them, and we find ourselves in a situation where we’re looking for the winner with a couple of minutes left.”
The Oil Kings have won three of their last four games and have at least a point in their last five.
Dechaine made 15 saves in his fourth-consecutive start since rejoining the team after the Christmas break, filling in for the injured Travis Child. Schneider finished with 23 saves. “I think (the winner) was a transition play through the neutral zone — we were a little late on our change,” Ferguson said. "The next thing you know they numbers at the net and they banged in a rebound. It was a bang-bang play, which is disappointing when you get yourself tied after you’ve been down by three. But we have to do a better job. We can’t play 40 minutes, 30 minutes and expect to win in this league.