Goalie Dea perfect in return as Americans blank Oil Kings
A former ally foiled the Edmonton Oil Kings at Rogers Place on Friday night.
Goaltender Patrick Dea returned to face his former team for the first time since joining the TriCity Americans this off-season and pitched a 24-save shutout in a 5-0 win.
Dea, 20, spent three seasons with the Oil Kings before being released this past off-season and picked up by the Americans.
“Physically, we were outmatched,” said Oil Kings head coach Steve Hamilton. “That’s a big, strong team and they took advantage of that element of their game. They had a decisive edge there and they played to it.”
Nolan Yaremko scored twice, while Dylan Coghlan, Carson Focht and Jordan Topping had the others for the Americans. Michael Rasmussen had three assists.
Things didn’t start well for the Oil Kings as Yaremko scored on the first shot of the game 29 seconds into the contest. Yaremko was the beneficiary of a turnover in the Oil Kings zone, went in all alone and beat goaltender Travis Child.
“Our struggles are often selfinflicted,” Hamilton said. “The first goal is a prime example. We never talk about a neutral-zone pinch from our defencemen and we had two of them. And that’s the first shift of the game that sets the tempo and sets the tone for the game.”
Coghlan extended the Americans’ lead to 2-0 with 1:32 left in the frame, picking the corner on Child from the right faceoff circle.
Child turned aside 15 shots in the first period, but was injured and replaced by Boston Bilous at the start of the second.
Yaremko scored 37 seconds into the second, taking a pass from Morgan Geekie, cutting to the net and lifting a shot over Bilous.
Focht scored midway through the period on a shot through traffic to put Tri-City up 4-0.
Topping scored five minutes into the third period to put the American up 5-0, after Oil Kings defenceman Tyler Robertson lost an edge and took out Bilous. Topping had an entire net to shoot at as Bilous scrambled to try to get back in position.
“We didn’t start how we wanted, obviously. We dug ourselves a hole and we couldn’t climb out of it,” said Oil Kings forward Brett Kemp. “We realized that if we played our game, we could play with them in the second. We only had two shots in the first, which shows that we didn’t have the puck in the first and obviously, if you don’t have the puck, you can’t score.”
The Oil Kings host the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday (7 p.m.) in their final game before the Christmas break.