Warriors hand Oil Kings fourth straight setback
Looking to end a three-game losing skid, the Edmonton Oil Kings found themselves on the wrong side of a 3-1 score against the Moose Jaw Warriors at Rogers Place on Friday night.
Brayden Tracey, Yegor Buyalski and Justin Almeida scored for the Warriors, while the lone Oil Kings’ marker came off the stick of Brett Kemp.
Warriors goalie Adam Evanoff skated away with the game’s first star after turning aside 35 of Edmonton’s 36 shots, while Dylan Miskiw stopped 19 of 22 shots at the other end.
Moose Jaw’s Tristan Langan added to his team-leading points total with a pair of assists to help his squad improve to 14-5-3-1.
They sit third in an East Division dominated by a Prince Albert Raiders crew that can’t seem to lose this year.
Edmonton, meanwhile, fell to 14-11-2-2, but they’re still battling the Red Deer Rebels for first place in the Central Division.
DRAWING FIRST BLOOD
Coming off a 6-3 loss on Wednesday to a Raiders squad that’s been out of this world in a start that’s seen them drop just one of their first 26 games, the Oil Kings came out swinging in a fast-flowing opening period.
More physical than it was productive in the way of offensive chances — the Oil Kings led in shots on goal by a measure of 8-5 over the first 20 minutes — the stalemate ended 15:17 into the game with Moose Jaw’s Kaeden Taphorn in the penalty box for holding and the Oil Kings on the man-advantage.
Originally awarded to former Warriors member Vince Loschiavo, the goal was later awarded to centre Kemp, who won the faceoff on the right-side dot before heading toward the crease mouth as the Oil Kings moved the puck around the perimeter.
With more than enough traffic in front of Warriors goalie Evanoff, a long pass to Loschiavo was redirected toward the net and deflected in front.
Trey Fix-Wolansky and Conner McDonald were awarded assists on the goal.
It was point No. 199 with the Oil Kings for their captain, Fix-Wolansky, who pulled even with former teammate Brett Pollock at fourth on the club’s all-time scoring list.
Coming into Friday’s game, 56 of those points have come in the current season, putting Fix-Wolansky (18 G, 38 A) second overall in the WHL, just three points behind league-leading scorer Brett Leason (26 G, 33 A) of the aforementioned Raiders.
SCORING IN BUNCHES
The second period belonged to the visitors.
The WHL’s leading rookie scorer Tracey tied it up with his ninth goal of the year with 9:05 to go in a second period that saw the Warriors capitalize on a swing in momentum.
With Langan on his wing, the Warriors carried the puck down the ice on a two-on-one with McDonald hustling back, as a cruising Tracey used his momentum to propel the puck across the goal-line after Myskiw made a good stop on the initial shot.
Less than two-and-a-half minutes later, the Oil Kings found themselves trailing after surrendering another two-on-one, as a rookie out of Sherwood Park Peyton McKenzie, feathered a pass past a last-gasp blockade by Vladimir Alistrov to set up Buyalski on a one-timer he put through Myskiw’s five-hole for his fifth goal of the season.
It proved to be all the visitors would need, but that didn’t stop Edmonton from giving it a go.
BRIDGE TOO FAR
The Oil Kings opened the third period looking for their first win of the season while trailing after the first two periods, sitting on an 0-9-1-1 record in that very scenario.
Moose Jaw, meanwhile, improved to 8-0-1 when leading after the first 40 minutes this season.
The Warriors added to their lead when they scored on Jett Woo’s innocuous shot from the high slot that could very well have been intended as a pass.
That’s how Almeida treated it, anyway, redirecting the puck right under the crossbar from his spot at the mouth of the crease to make it 3-1 before the two-minute mark of the final frame.
With 11 minutes remaining, the Oil Kings flipped a switch, and began bringing all kinds of pressure Evanoff ’s way with a flurry of shots, swats and postside pokes that left the Warriors goalie sprawled, split, and even stickless at one point.
To Edmonton’s credit, they kept the puck in the opposing zone so long, it left more than a few heads looking up at the scoreboard to make sure they weren’t actually on a power play.
Moose Jaw was finally able to clear the zone, only to have the Oil Kings swarm right back. A textbook one-timer effort from Jake Neighbours that almost found its way to an awaiting Kemp, only to be broken up at the last minute by Woo.