Oil Kings lead series 2-0
Kings D-man scores dramatic game-winner
When Dysin Mayo walked out of the dressing room after the Edmonton Oil Kings won Sunday’s second game in the Western Hockey League playoff series 3-1 against the Prince Albert Raiders, he was grinning from ear to ear.
He was also wearing a giant silver chain with a puck at the end that seemed to almost dwarf the young defenceman. The chain was an award given to the hardestworking player, as selected by his teammates.
Mayo hands-down deserved it. “It (feels) pretty good,” said the 18-yearold, looking down at the Oil Kings’ puck around his neck.
“It’s a little long, but I’ll take it.”
Mayo turned into an unlikely playoff hero for the Oil Kings, scoring the winning goal at 12:41 of the third period at Rexall Place and getting an assist on Luke Bertolucci’s insurance goal.
He has already scored two goals and two assists in the first two playoff games, after scoring just four assists during last year’s 19-game postseason run.
So far, the theme for the Oil Kings has been having the secondary players — not the Curtis Lazars or the Henrik Samuelssons — stepping up to be the playoff heroes as Edmonton took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
“I thought our third line was great tonight,” head coach Derek Laxdal said after the game. “They provided a lot of offence for us, some good opportunities and some good looks … .
“In the playoffs, you have to have those heroes. Mayo, Bertolucci, they were the heroes tonight.”
Much of the game looked like it would have to be settled in overtime. Both goaltenders — Tristan Jarry for the Oil Kings and Cole Cheveldave for the Raiders — were impossible to beat over the first 40 minutes as they made outstanding saves to keep the other team off the scoreboard and their own team in the game.
“I thought Cheveldave gave them a chance to win tonight,” said Laxdal, who barely batted an eyelash when asked about his own goaltender’s performance. “Tristan Jarry is Tristan Jarry. He made some big saves in the third period for us tonight. (Leon) Draisaitl had a look there late to make it 3-2, but he made the big save. He has great composure and he doesn’t get rattled. That’s going to be positive for us moving forward,” Laxdal said.
It was clear from the moment the puck dropped on Sunday that the playoff jitters which affected Saturday’s first game were gone. The Oil Kings recorded an exciting 5-3 victory, but there some shaky moments from two nervous goaltenders new to the playoffs.
Prince Albert’s Nick McBride let in three goals on nine shots and didn’t make it out of the first period while Jarry allowed three goals on 24 shots.
Sunday was clearly a different story.
It wasn’t until the third period that both teams finally figured out ways to beat the stellar goaltenders. Although the Raiders were the first to get on the scoreboard with a goal from Dakota Conroy just 20 seconds in, the Oil Kings responded with three unanswered goals to take a 2-0 lead in the series.
Riley Kieser started Edmonton’s scoring binge, getting the tying goal on the power play by putting the puck past Cheveldave off a nifty pass from Brett Pollock.
Mayo scored the go-ahead goal to give the Oil Kings the lead for the first time in the game, wiring a bullet from just inside the blue-line. Then Bertolucci put away the insurance goal, tucking in a rebound with the assists going to the game’s other heroes of the night, Kieser and Mayo.
“It was a back-and-forth game,” said Mayo. “They were giving us a good effort … and both goaltenders showed up today. There’s not much more to it then that, they were just saving everything.” The Oil Kings travel to Prince Albert to play Game 3 at 7 p.m. Tuesday.