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View Full Version : Jee Lee Gets Hat Trick



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03-06-2008, 01:51 AM
Edmonton, AB - The Edmonton Oil Kings took their lumps from the defending league champion Medicine Hat Tigers all year long and the season finale was no exception. The Tigers jumped out to what turned out to be an insurmountable 5 - 0 lead and cruised to a 6 - 3 victory despite an historic effort from 19 year old rookie Jeff Lee who notched the first hat trick in modern franchise history. Ultimately the Tigers extend their winning streak over the Oil Kings to a perfect 8 and 0 for the season.

The Oil Kings will be left wondering what if. What if they scored on the game's first quality scoring chance just over 3 minutes into the game when the Tigers turned the puck over at the red line creating a 2 on nothing for the Oil Kings' Clayton Cumiskey and Craig McCallum. Cumiskey tried to pass too late and they didn't even register a shot on goal against 15 year old St. Albert goalie Tyler Bunz who was playing his first WHL game. Just 18 seconds later, the Tigers went down to the other end of the rink and scored on their first chance. Tyler Ennis let a shot go from a about the top of the circle near the left wing boards. That shot fooled Alex Archibald for Ennis's 41st goal of the year. It was 1 - 0.

In fact Oil Kings Head Coach Steve Pleau pulled Archibald after that first goal, only to put him back in after Dalyn Flette didn't fare much better on the second goal.

The Tigers would add to their lead just 33 seconds later. This time Ennis was the play maker with a sweet pass to a streaking Daine Todd who had a tap in for his 25th goal of the season. Just like that, it was 2 nothing and the Tigers could smell blood. That was the end of Alex Archibald's night just 4:27 seconds into the game.

"I learned a little bit tonight." admitted Oil Kings Head Coach Steve Pleau. "Pulling Archibald after the first goal is something that I would've done in the American Hockey League. I thought it was a bad goal but we're dealing with kids here and I was probably a little hard on him. My intention was to put him back in anyway but I'll take the blame for the chaos in the opening period. That's my fault. These kids have been there for me all year and they didn't deserve that."

The only highlights of the period for the Oil Kings came in the form of 2 fights between Brennan Sonne and John Stampohar. The 2 squared off at centre ice in the first tilt and moments after they got out of the sin bin. The first fight was pretty close giving a slight edge to Sonne. The second fight wasn't even close. Sonne scored the heavy weight knockout to give the 7000 plus fans in attendance something to cheer about.

Shortly after that fight the Tigers got a bit of a lucky one but they still needed to win an offensive face off to do it. Jordan Hickmott won a clean draw back to his point man and captain Jordan Bendfeld. His seeing eye shot from the blue line beat Dalyn Flette to make it 3 nothing. Yashar Farmanara with a powerplay goal and Wacey Hamilton rounded out the scoring in the opening period which coincidentally matched a season low for the Oil Kings by allowing 5 goals in a period.

Things settled down for the remainder of the game with just one goal scored in the middle frame by Tigers tough guy Shayne Brown. Medicine Hat was still outshooting Edmonton 28 - 14 after 40 minutes.

About the only thing left in question for the third period was the chance for Tigers rookie goalie Tyler Bunz to register his first career shutout in his first career game. It wasn't meant to be when Jeff Lee etched his name into the Oil Kings history books with Edmonton's first shorthanded goal on home ice in franchise history. That goal came just over 2 minutes into the final frame making the score 6 - 1.

Lee would continue his hot streak with a powerplay goal about 4 minutes later stuffing in a loose puck. Clayton Cumiskey picked up the first assist with the centering pass from behind the net. Craig McCallum also picked up an assist. The Oil Kings were chipping away at the lead.

Lee would really make a statement 5 minutes later scoring the natural hat trick on a nice feed from Tomas Vincour on a 2 on 1. Brenden Dowd picked up the second assist. Unfortunately, the comeback would fall just a bit short.

"It feels nice." said Lee. "It hasn't been that I haven't been getting the chances this year, it's just they haven't been going in always for me. Today in the third period, something changed and they started to go in. It was good. We just didn't have the start we wanted but we're a team that's never going to give up. It's a good bunch of guys in there with a lot of character. There's no way we were going to sit down and let the game go. We battled back and I was very proud of the boys."

The Tigers earn their 40th win of the season tying them with the Lethbridge Hurricanes for 3rd place in the Eastern Conference with 87 points. The Oil Kings record falls to 20 - 35 - 4 - 7.

Edmonton will try to bounce back with a busy weekend and solid road trip through the Eastern division with 3 games in 3 nights starting on Friday in Regina followed by stops in Brandon and Moose Jaw.