On my way to the game. Looking forward to the puck drop. Hopefully the boys are ready and fired up after Tuesday.
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On my way to the game. Looking forward to the puck drop. Hopefully the boys are ready and fired up after Tuesday.
Discuss..
Sure is nice to have some interested fans around here now. I was starting to wonder what was up. I hope to make the trip to Edmonton for the road games. I think your boys will be hyped up. If we score 5 goals you get a Wndys burger, so you might get dinner out of the trip too. yeehoo
Tonights game should be a good one! Cant wait to steal the first game on the road! Cya at the Saddledome! dancing pi
http://www.oilkings.ca/hm/inside.php?id=471
Quote:
Oil Kings Gain Lots Of Experience In Game 1 Loss
Edmonton Oil Kings head coach Steve Pleau goes over some strategy during a timeout during Game 1 of the Western Hockey League's Eastern Conference quarter-final series with the Calgary Hitmen Thursday night. Photo by Andy Devlin.
CALGARY, AB*- The Edmonton Oil Kings put forth a valiant effort in their first playoff game in modern franchise history, but the playoff savvy Calgary Hitmen proved to be over powering as they beat the Oil Kings 5-0 Thursday night at the Saddledome.
Martin Jones made 21 saves for the shutout and Joel Broda scored twice, Ian Schultz, Kris Focault, and Brandon Kozun added singles for Calgary in the victory.
Torrie Jung made 32 saves in the loss for Edmonton.
Calgary draws first blood as they take a 1-0 series lead in the best-of-seven, Eastern Conference quarter-final series.
“I thought we had a decent start. We generated power plays, we were real good on the forecheck. We were outshooting them in the first and that’s the way we need to play,” said Oil Kings head coach Steve Pleau.
“If we can do that, we can make this a series. I like our guys. Give them a lot of credit.
“You have t o give them credit, when they get that engine revved up it kicks into gear and they’re real good.”
Calgary boasts the most explosive offence in the WHL, scoring a whopping 330 goals during the regular season. The Oil Kings did a good job keeping the Hitmen offence in check for the first period. They outshot Calgary 7-6 in the opening 20 minutes and limited the Hitmen’s scoring chances to just three in the first period.
The Oil Kings almost came out of the period unscathed but Schultz’s power play goal at the 16:35 mark of the first gave Calgary a 1-0 lead.
Edmonton had three chances with the man advantage in the first period, but the Hitmen were ranked No.1 in the WHL in both special teams categories during the regular season, and the Oil Kings had two good scoring chances, but they were denied.
The Oil Kings would finish 0 for 8 in Game 1 on the power play, while Calgary would finish 2 for 5.
“If you score on that (power plays) it’s a different game,” added Pleau.
“Maybe it’s a little bit of fatigue, we’ve played a lot of games. To get that start and not score, it’s real tough.”
Calgary had lots of playoff experience. They have over 300 playoff games under them, while the Oil Kings only have four games of playoff experience as a team.
Despite the lack of playoff experience, the Oil Kings didn’t give up and can draw a lot of positives in the loss and carry them over into the series.
“Our playoff experience went 400 times more after this game. We’re all set now,” smiled Pleau.
“We weren’t as wide eyed as we were against Red Deer last weekend. We’ve learned a lot, our start was really good. When it started to unravel, we may have lost some mental toughness and they sniffed that out, but that’s what they are all about.”
The Oil Kings offence took some strong strides in the second period as they started to put more pressure on the Hitmen, but Jones came up with two early saves off Oil Kings co-captain Jeff Lee and then they struck for three goals in a 5:24 span, midway through the second period to take a 4-0 lead.
Down 4-0, Oil Kings alternate captain Drew Nichol tried to spark the Oil Kings dropping the mitts with Schultz, who is the Hitmen’s resident tough guy and the two went toe-to-toe in a spirited bout.
In the third period, they gave up a goal to Broda, but they killed off a five-on-three man advantage, and they generated some quality chances on Jones, who had to make his toughest saves in the third period.
“We have learned a lot from this game, and we are going to do what we can to make this a series.”
The Oil Kings will try and take their strong third period in Thursday’s loss into Game 2, which goes Sunday in Calgary at 2 p.m.
Games 3 and 4 will take place on Monday March 23rd and Wednesday March 25th. Tickets are already on sale. Don’t miss out on any action from the Oil Kings first playoff series in modern franchise history.