Edmonton Oil Kings

Oil Kings start new streak with win over PG

February 21, 2010

EDMONTON, AB- Since coming together as a line four games ago, Mike Piluso, Cameron Abney and Michael Burns have been relied on to be a shutdown unit.

Out work, out hustle and out play the other team’s top line. That’s been their focus.

But not only have they been able to do that the last couple of games, they’ve been able to chip in with some offense as well.

The line combined for five points led by Abney’s goal and assist and the Oil Kings have won two in a row for the first time since Dec.16-18 with a 3-2 win over the Prince George Cougars in front of 4,216 fans who took part in the first ever Pups on the Pond event.

“Just hard work ethic, that is the key every shift for our line. Abney and Burns are pretty big guys and they are able to open up a lot of room for me and that helps me out,” said Piluso, who chipped in with two assists.

“They compliment me well and we click as a line.”

Abney went his first 22 games in an Oil Kings jersey without a goal, and the Oil Kings tough guy now has goals in two straight games. He scored the game winner Friday night in a victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes and he opened the scoring just 31 seconds into the contest Saturday night.

“That Burns, Piluso, Abney line comes up big for us again. They score on the first shift of the game,” said Oil Kings head coach Steve Pleau.

“They are out there to provide us with some energy, and they’ve been doing a good job of that by playing physical and they are getting rewarded with some offensive chances.”

The game wasn’t even five minutes old when Abney and Piluso got into the scoring act again. Their line was buzzing around the Cougar net and Abney was able to feed a pass over to a streaking Devin Ballness, who tapped it in past Cougars netminder Hudson Stremmel for his fifth goal of the season to give Edmonton a 2-0 lead.

Parker Stanfield cut the Oil Kings lead in half at the 12:26 mark of the first period, but Robin Soudek would blast his eighth goal of the season late in the first period, his first since being converted to a defenceman four games ago.

“I thought we played hard. It wasn’t always the prettiest and we didn’t always make it easy on ourselves,” said Pleau.

“Sometimes that plays against you a little bit when you get up 2-0 like we did. It can make guys think it’s going to be easy and we started to get a little fancy, but that’s where we have to learn to stick to the game plan and keep our discipline.”

It looked like it may be a blowout early on, but the pesky Cougars stayed in the game. Brock Hirsche would score an early third period power play goal to round out the scoring.

Cam Lanigan was once again strong in his second straight start making 31 saves for his sixth win of the season.

“They worked hard. I thought their goalie made some key saves. We had a couple of breakaways in the third where we could have put it away, but it was a good hockey game,” said Pleau.

“It’s too young teams, and I thought both played pretty hard.”

JUST NOTES: The line of Michael St. Croix, Garry Nunn and T.J. Foster continued their torrid pace. Both St. Croix and Foster earned assists on Soudek’s goal giving that line 37 points in their past nine games.

Nunn’s eight- game scoring streak (5g,8a) was ended Saturday.

Edmonton has a chance to make a little history on Sunday. If they beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes, it will be the first time ever the Oil Kings win three games in a three night stretch.

HERE TO STAY: The Oil Kings called up forward local product Stephane Legault for the remainder of the season Saturday. The 16-year-old won an Alberta Midget Hockey League scoring title this year with Southside with 20 goals and 55 points in 35 games.

He was in the lineup for his third WHL game Saturday against Prince George and he saw some familiar faces on the Cougar bench.

His Midget AAA teammate Dane Phaneuf played his first WHL game, as did Troy Bourke who finished second in AMHL scoring title behind Legault. Bourke plays for the St. Albert Raiders of the AMHL.

“You do it all the time in practice, but it’s just fun to play against a friend, and it’s something to laugh about later,” said Legault about playing against Phaneuf.

After being a late cut at the beginning of the season, Legault is excited at the opportunity to finish his season with the Oil Kings.

“I found out today, and I am looking for to it and I want to make a good impression,” said Legault.

“I want to show the coaches that I am reliable and play a solid two-way game. I want to show that I can play at this level and compete here.”