Edmonton Oil Kings

Late goal costs Oil Kings a chance to blow by Hurricanes in the standings

February 11, 2010

EDMONTON, AB- With a victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Wednesday night, the Edmonton Oil Kings had an opportunity to leap frog both Lethbridge and the Seattle Thunderbirds in the Western Hockey League standings.

With everything that the Oil Kings have been through this season, the chance to get out of the Eastern Conference basement would have been a nice reward with the way they’ve played the last five games.

They fired 40 shots towards Canes goaltender Brandon Anderson, but Oil Kings netminder Torrie Jung was even busier as he made 47 saves as the Oil Kings were outshot 51-40 and the Oil Kings lost a 4-3 heart-breaker, after Hurricanes forward Cam Braes notched his second of the game with just 1:41 remaining.

“You win a hockey game and you’re there…. and you can continue to build,” said a disappointed Oil Kings head coach Steve Pleau.

“But it seems like every-time we get to that step, we come up with a dud.

“That’s frustrating, but you’ve got to take pride.”

Michael St. Croix, Michael Burns and Garry Nunn scored for the Oil Kings, while Braes scored twice, and Brennan Yadlowski and Mitch Maxwell tallied for the Hurricanes.

The loss drops the Oil Kings record to 12-34-4-8 and they are now three points back of Lethbridge. Edmonton is 0-3-0-1 against Lethbridge this season.

“It comes down to one-on-one to me. If you can’t win a one-on-one, or play a one-on-one then fundamentally no matter what you do in a hockey game, you’re not going to win,” added Pleau.

“We had a good start, and then they come down and beat one of our d-man one-on-one to the outside and that’s pee-wee hockey for me and that can’t happen.

“I didn’t have a problem with our offensive game. We created a lot of chances.

“The defensive side of the puck was awful, and that is what we’ve got to key on.”

Coming off his 50^th career victory Saturday night in Prince George, Jung was clearly on his game. He faced 19 shots in the first period and another 19 in the second, his 47 saves were the most he’s had this season.

While the Oil Kings struggled in the defensive zone, Jung bailed his team out. The Hurricanes were able to score three of their four goals on defensive miscues.

“Anytime you lose a game late, it’s frustrating. We gave ourselves a chance to win all game, and one tiny breakdown with just under two minutes to go ended up being the winner,” said Jung.

“We can take a lot of positives out of this game. Offensively we were really good tonight, and if it weren’t for their goalie, we could have had five or six.

“Physically we played well, we blocked shots, but one mental lapse at the end and it’s in the back of our net.”

The Oil Kings opened the scoring from their most potent offensive line. The trio of St. Croix, T.J. Foster and Nunn have combined for a whopping 26 points (11 goals and 15 assists) in the past five games.

Foster capitalized on a Canes turnover and fed the puck into the slot to a streaking St. Croix who sniped his 13^th goal of the season past Anderson for the 1-0 lead.

Lethbridge would strike for three straight goals before Burns would crash the net and cut the Canes lead to just one heading into the second period.

Despite the flurry of shots in both the opening two periods, the goals were getting tougher to come by. Nunn finished the comeback with his power play marker midway through the second period.

Oil Kings defenceman Mark Pysyk earned an assist on Nunn’s goal, his first point in 11 games.

Nunn had the Oil Kings best scoring chance in the third period to give the Oil Kings the lead, but he was robbed on a breakaway by Anderson ,and then was stymied on the rebound.

“He made a really good save. (Cameron) Abney made a real good play to me, and the d-man had good position on me. I couldn’t go to that far side, I thought I made a great move on the goalie, but he just made a better save,” said Nunn.

“We had a lot of chances ourselves, but we can’t get beat off the rush like that. Three goals like that is unacceptable.”

The 51 shots is the most the Oil Kings have given up this season. While the team is starting to get their scoring mojo back, the defensive effort is one that left a bad taste in their mouth.

“You got to practice… you got to show up tomorrow put a puck on the ice and you have to do one-on-one drills and preach the fundamentals and have good sticks,” explained Pleau.

“The wingers have to have their heads on a swivel and all the little things it takes to be a good offensive team, we have to learn.”

Edmonton will try to get back in the win column this Friday February 12th when they host another division rival, the Kootenay Ice.