Short-handed Oil Kings no match for Canada’s No. 1-ranked team

Their winless streak has reached a not-so-sweet 16 games, but the Edmonton Oil Kings can be proud of their effort against the highpowered Regina Pats.

Missing their top defensive pairing of Brayden Gorda and Will Warm (suspension) as well as a few other injuries on their roster, the Oil Kings didn’t back down from the No. 1 team in the Canadian Hockey League in a 5-2 loss Friday at Rogers Place.

Wyatt Sloboshan, Filip Ahl, Dawson Davidson, Connor Hobbs and Nick Henry scored for Regina, while Nicholas Bowman and Conner McDonald replied for the Oil Kings, who drop to 18-33-3-1 this season.

The Oil Kings looked like a team that was fed up and ready to end its losing ways. They dominated the opening half of the first period, outshooting Regina 8-0, and were rewarded with a lead as Bowman scored his seventh goal of the season.

He took a feed from rookie forward Davis Murray and was left alone in front and beat Pats goaltender Jordan Hollett with a backhand.

But that goal by the Oil Kings seemed to wake the Pats up. Being outshot 12-1, Regina tied the game with 7:17 left in the opening frame as Sloboshan buried a shot past Patrick Dea on a perfect pass from defenceman Sergey Zborovskiy.

The Pats made it 2-1 less than two minutes later and didn’t look back.

Dea made two big saves off of Adam Brooks and Hobbs, but couldn’t corral the rebound enough before Ahl made no mistake to give the Pats the lead.

The shots were 11-1 just moments after the Oil Kings opened the scoring and in a matter of just a few minutes the Pats took the lead and the shots were suddenly 11-10.

The Pats took a 3-1 lead 6:29 into the second period as Davidson’s point shot beat Dea through traffic, but Edmonton kept working and was able to cut into Regina’s lead in the late stages of the second.

McDonald jumped into the rush and took a feed from Murray and beat Hollett to make it 3-2 with 2:05 remaining in the second, giving Edmonton some momentum into the third, but Regina took control of the game, scoring twice and outshooting Edmonton 15-4 in the process.

Hollett made 23 saves to push his record to 11-0-1, while Dea made 34 saves.

The Oil Kings finished 0-for-4 on the power play, while the Pats were 1-for-2. GAME NOTES: Warm was suspended for three games for a hit on Swift Current Broncos forward Lane Pederson in Wednesday’s 3-2 loss. Warm was assessed a charging major.

This was the second time Edmonton and Regina played in less than a week. The Pats beat Edmonton 7-1 Feb. 4 in Regina.

Oil Kings D McDonald played his 100th WHL game on Friday night.

Defenceman Matthew Robertson, 15, was called up to play. It marked the second WHL game for the 2016 first-round bantam draft pick (seventh overall).