Finally, a streak! Oil Kings sweep home-and-home
Fix-Wolansky scores in overtime to seal back-to-back victories against the Rebels
While the Western Hockey League season has not unfolded as they hoped, the Edmonton Oil Kings wanted to end the year on a positive note.
After defeating the Red Deer Rebels on the road in the first game of a home-and-home series Wednesday, the Oil Kings returned to Rogers Place on Thursday and won their second straight contest for the first time this season in claiming the back half of the series.
Forward Trey Fix-Wolansky scored at 4:48 into overtime to lift the Oil Kings to a 4-3 victory over the Rebels, giving Edmonton its first winning streak of the season.
Brian Harris, David Kope and Conner McDonald also scored for Edmonton (9-22-3-1) in the win, while goaltender Josh Dechaine made 23 saves in his second consecutive start.
“I just got a good pass from Conner there and had a little room on the outside, so I thought I would make a move on the defender,” FixWolansky said. “I got by him and then just tried to get a shot on net. I had a little bit of time, so I was able to pick my spot, and fortunately it went in.”
Greyson Pawlenchuk, Dawson Barteaux and Mason McCarty scored for Red Deer (10-19-4-2) and goaltender Ethan Anders made 22 saves.
The Oil Kings close out what has been a tough calendar year Saturday when they host the Kootenay Ice at 7 p.m. at Rogers Place.
They’ll then host the Calgary Hitmen at 2 p.m. on New Year’s Day to begin 2018.
“I think it’s energizing for our group to come out of the break and have some success here,” Oil Kings head coach Steve Hamilton said. “We showed a little bit of resiliency in our game, stayed with it and those are good signs.
“Our group still believes, is heavily invested and those are the signs you want to see from a young group.”
Harris opened the scoring for the Oil Kings 2:31 into the first period, picking up a loose puck in the Rebels’ zone after Carter Souch collided with a defenceman at the blue-line. Harris went in and picked the corner on Anders for his second goal of the season.
The Rebels tied the game with six minutes left in the period as Pawlenchuk was able to tip a point shot from Brandon Schuldhaus in past Dechaine.
The Oil Kings goaltender was called up from the Sherwood Park Crusaders of the Alberta Junior Hockey League following the break to take the place of Travis Child, who injured his shoulder before Christmas.
“Travis is not a candidate to be back in the near future. He’s going to be a ways,” Hamilton said. “So with that being said, we always knew that Josh was part of things. You look at our history with goaltenders and injuries in the past few years and it’s crazy what we’ve had to deal with. To be able to have Josh, who is familiar with the guys and familiar with the system, be able to slide in seamlessly has been a real good benefit for us.”
Kope gave the Oil Kings a 2-1 lead on an outstanding individual effort in the second period. He collected the puck at centre and blew between Rebels defencemen Ethan Sakowich and Barteaux. Kope tucked the puck in past Anders just before crashing into the goalie.
The Rebels tied the game six minutes into the third period on the power play. Barteaux fired a seeing-eye shot from the blue-line that made its way through traffic.
McCarty put the Rebels ahead 3-2 a minute and a half later, taking the puck off the end boards after wild scramble in front and banking his wraparound attempt in off the skate of Oil Kings defenceman Matthew Robertson.
McDonald tied the game 3-3 with 8:50 left in the period after getting to a rebound at the right faceoff circle off a shot from Davis Koch.