Oil Kings down Blades 4-1 in strange feeling game

The Oil Kings celebrate a second period power-play goal.

It was an odd night at the rink when you realized the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings had three players on the ice who should have been elsewhere.

On Saturday night at the SaskTel Centre, the Oil Kings hit the ice for a WHL regular season clash with netminder Sebastian Cossa, centre Dylan Guenther and left-winger Jake Neighbours in the lineup as they faced the host Saskatoon Blades.

All three were suiting up for the Oil Kings for the first time since the remainder of IIHF’s world juniors were cancelled on Wednesday. Cossa, Guenther and Neighbours were all playing for Canada at world juniors, which were held jointly in Edmonton and Red Deer.

Dylan Guenther had two assists on Saturday for the Oil Kings.

With those three in the fold, the Oil Kings downed the Blades 4-1 holding a 40-16 advantage in shots on goal in a contest played before 2,827 spectators.  

Due to the fact world juniors were supposed to run thru to this coming Wednesday, the Oil Kings are in the middle of a seven-game road trip, which started when the club resumed action following the WHL Christmas break. Saturday’s contest against the Blades was the fourth game of that trip.

On Thursday, the Oil Kings downed the Wheat Kings in Brandon 3-2 after a tiebreaking shootout in a contest that was played without fans in attendance at Westoba Place. Following the win over the Wheat Kings, the Oil Kings made the jaunt to Saskatoon and Cossa, Guenther and Neighbours joined up with the Edmonton club there.

Jake Neighbours was back in the Oil Kings fold on Saturday.

All of those events occurred because the world is still stuck in the grips of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which took root in North America in a big way in March of 2020. The emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is causing a rapid rise in new cases in North America.

Dealing with the Omicron variant has been challenging, because while it is supposed to be a variant that is milder than other strains of COVID-19, it is more transmissible than other variants.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of the remainder of world juniors after three days of games were held.

A WHL game was played in Brandon without fans on Thursday in order to best comply with the public health orders that current exist in the province of Manitoba.

Sebastian Cossa made 15 saves earning a win for the Oil Kings.

The Blades were holding their traditional New Year’s Day game on Saturday, which they weren’t able to do in 2021 thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the Blades were able to hold that traditional New Year’s Day contest, the COVID-19 specter was there.

It was seen in the fact that that Cossa, Guenther and Neighbours were playing with the Oil Kings and not for Canada at world juniors.

The Oil Kings had two other players attend world juniors who were not in the lineup in defenceman Kaiden Guhle and centre Jakub Demek. The Edmonton club has both listed as not yet having rejoined the team.

The Blades can’t stop a Jalen Luypen (#23) Oil Kings power-play goal.

Guhle was the captain of Canada’s team, while Demek was skating for Slovakia.

It is possible both could be getting their respective Christmas breaks right now. Most major junior teams that have players take part in world juniors will find a spot to give those players a Christmas break.

With that said, the COVID-19 pandemic is the elephant in the room, so it makes you wonder.

On the Saskatoon side, the Blades were without star 20-year-old centre Tristen Robins and 19-year-old right-winger Noah Boyko, who was acquired on Tuesday in a trade with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, for undisclosed reasons.

Jalen Luypen had a goal and an assist for the Oil Kings.

Both suited up for the Blades on Thursday, when they downed the Prince Albert Raiders 6-4 at the SaskTel Centre. Robins and Boyko finished that contest, so the COVID-19 elephant is there in that instance.

Earlier in the day on Saturday, Boyko’s former team in the Hurricanes had 14 players placed on the WHL COVID-19 Protocol List. The Hurricanes road game on Saturday in Calgary against the Hitmen and home game on Sunday against the Swift Current Broncos were both postponed.

The absence of Robins and Boyko saw the Blades add 15-year-old associate player call up Zachary Moore to their roster. Moore made his WHL debut for his hometown team at forward.

Nolan Maier made 36 saves in goal for the Blades.

Belarusian import left-winger Egor Sidorov found his way back into the lineup since rejoining the Blades following the WHL Christmas break.

Once the game between the Oil Kings and Blades got started, it quickly felt like what a normal WHL regular season contest should feel like. When the action on the ice was going on, the focus for most in the building was on hockey.

The Oil Kings took a 1-0 lead at the 3:54 mark of the opening frame when import offensive-defenceman Simon Kubicek took a pass from centre Jalen Luypen at the point, skated down to the right slot and wired a shot to the top left corner of the Saskatoon goal.

The Blades evened things up at 1-1 scoring on the power play at the 7:37 mark of the first. Sidorov positioned himself at the right side of the Edmonton goal and one-timed a setup pass that came across the front of the Oil Kings net from star left-winger Kyle Crnkovic to even the score.

Egor Sidorov scored for the Blades on Saturday.

Saskatoon hit a bump with 3:39 remaining in the first period when 16-year-old rookie centre Lukas Hansen took a double minor for high sticking. The double minor will be automatically reviewed by the WHL office for as possible suspension.

The Oil Kings were able to go back in front on the second half of that penalty.

With exactly 59 seconds remaining in the first, Oil Kings 19-year-old defenceman Luke Prokop put an off-speed point shot on goal that found its way thru a maze of bodies into the Saskatoon net for a power-play marker that gave the visitors a 2-1 edge.

The Blades ran into more troubles in the penalty department when 18-year-old centre Jayden Wiens took a major penalty for boarding at the 2:22 mark of the second period. Wiens was penalized after making an awkward hard hit into the boards on Oil Kings 19-year-old defenceman Carson Golder.

Zachary Moore made his WHL debut on Saturday.

Golder had to be attended to on the ice by the Oil Kings training staff. He left the contest and didn’t return.

Wiens’ infraction also triggers an automatic review by the WHL office for a possible suspension.

The Oil Kings managed to score once on the five-minute power-play to go ahead 3-1 at the 3:33 mark of the second.

The scoring play saw Oil Kings 20-year-old right-winger Josh Williams hold the puck at the left side of the Saskatoon goal, and slide a pass across the face of the Blades net to Luypen. Luypen popped the puck into net just out of the reach of a sprawling Blades 20-year-old star netminder in Nolan Maier to give the visitors their two-goal edge.

The goal helped Luypen complete a two-point night.

A scrum takes place by the Saskatoon net in the second period.

A big scrum around the Saskatoon net occurred with 6:46 remaining in the second that amused the spectators. There were some wrestling and holding matches in the scrum, but no actual fights resulted from it.

The Oil King proceeded to seal victory scoring a big dagger goal just before the midway part of the third period to round out the 4-1 final thank to a nice setup play by Guenther.

Guenther passed the puck from the left back boards behind the Saskatoon goal to the front of the net to linemate Jaxsen Wiebe, who popped home his fourth tally of the season. Guenther finished the contest with two assists, while Wiebe had a helper to go along with his goal.

Jaxsen Wiebe had a goal and an assist for the Oil Kings.

Maier played heroically turning away 36 shots to take the setback in goal for the Blades (17-14-1-1). Cossa stopped 15 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Oil Kings (24-8-2-1).

The Oil Kings return to action on Sunday, when they travel to Prince Albert to take on the Raiders (6 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

The Blades return to action this coming Friday when they host the Regina Pats (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

A total of seven games got played in the WHL on Saturday night. At the moment, the majority of the circuit’s contests are still happening.

The COVID-19 pandemic specter is still there going forward with the Omicron variant seemingly taking centre stage. It is the back in everyone’s mind that more game postponements due to the pandemic will still happen.

Oil Kings C Jalen Luypen and Blades LW Kyle Crnkovic face off.

No one knows when the next postponements will be.

The teams are trying to do their best to prevent players and staff from contracting COVID-19, while still having reasonable but limited contact with the world outside the team environment.

That includes trying to do more media interviews via telephone and Zoom calls. Before the Christmas break, most WHL teams were still doing media interviews in person.

At the moment, most games are going ahead, but that potentially might not always be the case in the future even with everyone’s best efforts.

The Oil Kings celebrate their win on Saturday night.

Every time a game gets in, that in itself is a good little victory.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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