Oil Kings tie WHL final against Seattle on clutch goal from Kuny
Edmonton Oil Kings forward Brendan Kuny picked the perfect time to score his first goal of the WHL playoffs.
Kuny redirected a point shot from defenceman Luke Prokop past goaltender Thomas Milic just under nine minutes into the third period to give the Oil Kings a 5-4 win against the Seattle Thunderbirds in Game 2 of the WHL final at Rogers Place on Sunday.
The win tied the best-of-seven series 1-1 with the scene shifting to Kent, Wash., for the next two games of the series on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“It was all this guy (Prokop),” Kuny said, pointing to his teammate in the post-game media conference. “It was a good shot by him and I just got a stick on it and luckily it went in the net.”
Prokop had a monster game with two goals and two assists. Carter Souch and Justin Sourdif also scored for the Oil Kings, while goaltender Sebastian Cossa made 26 saves.
Lukas Svejkovsky had two goals and an assists for the Thunderbirds, while Matthew Rempe and Jared Davidson scored the others. Milic finished with 36 saves.
“I thought we had a good game overall, and the adjustment we made going into the game were met,” Prokop said. “We wanted to get into the paint (crease) and get into Milic's eyes a little more and I thought we did that quite successfully today.
“We're going to look at more video and make more adjustments and head into Game 3 with that mindset.”
The Oil Kings dropped the opening game of the series 2-1 on Friday despite outshooting the Thunderbirds 44-22. Heading into the second game, the
Oil Kings were looking to make things harder on the Thunderbirds goaltender, who has been outstanding throughout the playoffs.
“We always want to get in front of every goalie, it's just one of those things,” Oil Kings head coach Brad Lauer said. “They have some big defenceman that can prevent guys from getting to the net, but our forwards have to find a way to get there.
“I thought for the most part, when we needed to get there, our guys got there. We can still be better, but overall, I thought the second and third effort that we didn't have in Game 1, we had tonight.”
The Oil Kings had built a 4-2 lead through two periods, but the Thunderbirds, true to form, were difficult to keep down. Davidson scored on the power play 26 seconds into the third period to cut the deficit to 4-3 and Svejkovsky scored his second just over two minutes later, lifting a loose puck over Cossa, to tie it.
“It was nice to see that resiliency from our team, going down 4-2 and then being able to claw our way back to tie the game,” said Thunderbirds head coach Matt O'dette. “But they did a good job of taking point shots and getting guys to the net for tips and deflections and that's what happened on the fifth goal.”
Prokop opened the scoring 1:35 into the second period, sifting a shot through traffic and past Milic. Rempe tied it, getting to a loose puck in front after a point shot from Jeremy Hanzel hit a couple of bodies in front.
Prokop put the Oil Kings up 2-1 less than a minute after that. He jumped into the rush and converted a centring pass from Jake Neighbours.
“Luke was good, he stepped up his game,” Lauer said. “Obviously, it was an important game for us, we didn't want to go down 2-0. I thought he elevated his game to where we needed it. He created a lot of energy and it was great to see.
“That's one thing playoff hockey is, you never know who is going to step up at certain times and I thought he stepped up for us, big time.”
Souch extended the lead to 3-1 on a breakaway 13 minutes into the period. Souch stripped Hanzel of the puck at the Oil Kings blue line, raced back the other way and roofed a backhand over Milic.
Svejkovsky pulled it to 3-2 on the power play with just under five minutes left in the period on a shot from the point that found its way thorough traffic.
The Oil Kings restored its twogoal lead just over two minutes later as Sourdif tipped in a point shot from Prokop.
“I don't think we had the start we wanted to have,” Svejkovsky said. “I think we let them push first and that's not how you win games in the playoffs.
“I did like our resiliency fighting back and that's just something I think we can build off for next game.”
The Thunderbirds have been a tough out throughout the WHL playoffs, having faced elimination five times and winning every time. So it was not a surprise they were able to battle back in the contest with two third-period goals.
“Obviously, we wanted to win the game, but splitting on the road for the first two games is never a bad thing,” Hanzel said. “We just need a better start and I think we'll be good.”