Ice, Oil Kings - Recipe for classic WHL conference final

The Ice celebrate scoring a goal on March 23.

The seemingly inevitable clash of WHL titans in 2021-22 is going to happen, and it could deliver a classic post-season series.

Throughout the 2021-22 campaign, the Winnipeg Ice and Edmonton Oil Kings seemed destined to be on a collision course to meet in the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship series. The two squads pretty much sat either first or second in the overall league standing throughout the 2021-22 regular season.

When the regular season came to a close, the Ice finished first overall with a 53-10-3-2 record, while the Oil Kings were second overall with a 50-14-3-1 mark. The final CHL Top 10 rankings released on April 20 saw the Ice rated second overall, while the Oil Kings were listed third overall.

The Eastern Conference Championship between the Ice and Oil Kings was finalized on Friday night. That occurred when the Ice downed the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors 6-3 in Game 5 of an Eastern Conference semifinal series at the Wayne Fleming Arena.

The victory allowed the Ice to take the best-of-seven series with the Warriors 4-1.

Game 1 of the series between the Ice and Warriors is set for this coming Friday at 7 p.m. local time at the Wayne Fleming Arena. Game 2 follows one night later on Saturday, May 21 at 7 p.m. local time.

Dylan Guenther led the Oil Kings in regular season scoring.

The schedule for the rest of the series is still to be announced. The series will be played in a two-three-two format thanks to the lengthy travel distance between the two cities with the Ice holding home ice advantage.

As the 2021-22 campaign motored along, it was easy for opinion to swing back and forth on which club was the best team.

The Ice were an impressive 18-1-1-1 in their final 21 regular season contests leading into the post-season. The Oil Kings were 6-3-1 in their last 10 games heading into the playoffs.

At that point, it appeared the Ice would be the favourites, if the two sides met in the playoffs.

In the WHL Playoffs, the Ice took out the Prince Albert Raiders 4-1 in a best-of-seven first round series and proceeded to eliminate the Warriors in one Eastern Conference semifinal.

The Oil Kings swept the Lethbridge Hurricanes 4-0 in a first round series and got the brooms out again for an impressive 4-0 of the Red Deer Rebels, who had a 45-19-2-2 regular season record. Including play in the regular season, the Oil Kings have won their last 12 straight games.

The two sides met four times in the regular season with the Oil Kings claiming three of those encounters. With that said, it would be hard to forecast a winner off those results.

Out of those four encounters, three of them occurred before Dec. 31, 2021. The last clash came on Feb. 21, where the Oil Kings posted a 6-3 victory on home ice at Rogers Place. That contest was also a lengthy time ago.

Zachary Benson had a big season for the Ice.

At this point, determining a favourite in a series between the two sides might be a tossup.

Both clubs have exciting rosters to watch.

For the Ice, the strength in their roster might be in their youth. Centre Matthew Savoie, right-winger Conor Geekie and netminder Daniel Hauser are eligible to play three more full campaigns each in the WHL. Centre Zachary Benson could potentially suit up for four more seasons of eligibility in the WHL.

Jonas Woo, who is a 15-year-old defenceman, plays regular minutes on the Ice’s back end through all the club’s 10 games to date in the 2022 post-season. He joined the Ice on a full-time basis after his Winnipeg Bruins under-18 AAA team was eliminated from their provincial playoffs.

Savoie led the Ice in regular season scoring with 90 points coming off 35 goals and 55 assists to go with a plus-54 rating in the plus-minus department. Geekie had 70 points in the regular season coming off 24 goals and 46 assists to go with a plus-49 rating.

Hauser appeared in 40 regular season games for the post recording a 34-3-1 record, a 2.00 goals against average, a .914 save percentage and eight shutouts.

Benson skated in 58 regular season games with the Ice posting 63 points coming off 25 goals and 38 assists to go with a plus-40 rating. He leads the Ice in post-season scoring with 18 points coming off eight goals and 10 assists to go with a plus-12 rating.

Kaiden Guhle was a huge addition to the roster of the Oil Kings.

Woo as a 15-year-old regular on defence has one goal, one assist and a plus-five rating skating in all of the Ice’s 10 post-season games to date. He appeared in 15 regular season games with the Ice recording one goal, two assists and a plus-18 rating.

The Ice have a number of star and standout veterans too in Connor McClennon, Mikey Milne, Jakin Smallwood, Benjamin Zloty, Jack Finley, Carson Lambos and seemingly the rest of the roster has made big contributions at some point during the campaign.

Zloty, who could return next season as an overager, led the Ice in defenceman scoring in the regular season posting 64 points coming off eight goals and 56 assists skating in 62 regular season games. He also had a plus-38 rating in the plus-minus department.

Ice head coach James Patrick and has staff have done an outstanding job ensuring the Winnipeg side place consistent on a nightly basis.

The Oil Kings head into the series with the Ice with an older roster. Edmonton is carrying 10 players who are skating through their 19-year-old campaign along with the allowed three overagers each WHL club can have.

The Oil Kings roster has eight players who have been a selection in the NHL Entry Draft. Edmonton’s notable acquisitions going all-in on the trade front for this season include centre and Florida Panthers draft selection Justin Sourdif, defenceman and Montreal Canadiens draft selection Kaiden Guhle and rearguard and Nashville Predators draft selection Luke Prokop.

Benjamin Zloty had 64 points in 62 games for the Ice.

Management for the Edmonton side made the aggressive moves with the team having lost two potential long post-season runs in 2020 and 2021 due to the WHL Playoffs and the CHL Championship Tournament – the Memorial Cup – being cancelled in each of those years due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world.

Right-winger Dylan Guenther, who can potentially return for two more WHL campaigns, led the Oil Kings in regular season scoring with 91 points coming off 45 goals and 46 assists to go with a plus-51 rating. Guenther tops the Oil Kings in post-season scoring with 12 points coming off nine goals and three assists to go with a plus-eight rating.

Overage import defenceman Simon Kubicek led all Oil Kings blue-liners in regular season scoring with 41 points coming off 14 goals and 27 assists to go with a plus-29 rating.

Star 19-year-old netminder Sebastian Cossa, had an outstanding regular season posting a 33-9-3 record, a 2.28 goals against average, a .913 save percentage and six shutouts in 46 appearances.

 The Oil Kings have plenty of other stars and standouts like captain Jake Neighbours, Josh Williams, Carter Souch, Jalen Luypen and Jakub Demek. Neighbours only appeared in 30 regular season games, but he posted 45 points coming off 17 goals and 28 assists to go with a plus-24 rating.

Head coach Brad Lauer guided the Oil Kings to the Eastern Conference final in 2019 when they fell to the eventual WHL champion Prince Albert Raiders. Lauer and his staff will do their best to ensure their club gets past the conference championship round this season.

The Oil Kings celebrate a goal on Jan. 1.

The Ice and Oil Kings potentially have a series that would be great to showcase the WHL on a national television sports network.

For ticket buyers in Winnipeg and Edmonton, they will be in for treat with what they see in the rink.

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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Raiders post-season life gets put on Ice

Winnipeg eliminates Prince Albert from WHL Playoffs

The Ice are all smiles to be moving on in the WHL Playoffs.

The stay of execution lasted one game for the Prince Albert Raiders.

The Winnipeg Ice had no intention of returning to the Art Hauser Centre in “Hockey Town North” with a further extension of the best-of-seven first round WHL playoff series between the two sides. In Game 5 of the series on Friday at the Wayne Fleming Arena in the Manitoba capital, the Ice stormed out to a 4-0 lead in the first period and rolled to an 8-2 victory to the delight of most of the 1,606 spectators in attendance.

The win allowed the Ice to take the series 4-1. They now wait to see who they will play in a best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Winnipeg took the first three contests of the series against Prince Albert. Facing their first elimination game, the Raiders posted a 3-1 victory in Game 4 on Wednesday at the Art Hauser Centre to make a Game 5 of the series back in Winnipeg necessary.

In Game 5, the Ice showed why they were massive favourites in the series in the runaway victory. The Ice topped the WHL’s regular season standings with a 53-10-3-2 record.

The Raiders won their last two regular season outings to finish eighth overall in the Eastern Conference and capture the conference’s final post-season berth with a 28-35-4-1 record. Prince Albert did win three out of the eight head-to-head meetings in the regular season with the Ice.

Connor McClennon scored twice for the Ice on Friday.

Including play in the regular season and post-season, the Ice, who were rated second in the final CHL Top 10 rankings, are 22-2-1-1 in their last 26 games.

In Friday’s series clinching win, the Ice came out of the gates on fire. Raiders rookie import netminder Tikhon Chaika did his best to hold the fort early, but the dam burst right before the midway point of the frame.

At the 9:58 mark of the first, Ice 19-year-old power forward Jack Finley popped home Winnipeg’s first goal from the front of the Prince Albert net after collecting the rebound of a shot from linemate Owen Pederson. The tally was Finley’s first of the post-season after having netted 27 goals in the regular season.

Ice star 16-year-old centre Zachary Benson potted a close in backhander to increase the Ice’s edge to 2-0 at the 14:18 mark of the opening frame. Just one minute later, Ice 19-year-old star left-winger Mikey Milne netted his fifth goal of the playoffs to extend the Ice’s lead to 3-0.

Before the first period expired, Ice 19-year-old centre Chase Wheatcroft made a smart backhanded pass in the centre ice zone to spring 15-year-old Ice defenceman Jonas Woo on a breakaway down the left wing.

Woo sniped his first career post-season goal low right side to the Prince Albert net to send the Ice into the first intermission holding a 4-0 lead. Winnipeg held a 13-1 edge in shots on goal after the opening 20 minutes.

Reece Vitelli had the Raiders first goal on Friday.

Just 1:57 into the second, the Ice upped their lead to 5-0. Pederson had the puck at the right side of the Prince Albert goal and found star 19-year-old right-winger Connor McClennon with a backdoor pass, and McClennon slipped home a backhand shot to give the Ice their five-goal lead.

Following that tally, the Raiders pulled Chaika, who turned away 10-of-15 shots to take the setback in the Prince Albert net. Max Hildebrand played the rest of the way in the Raiders net in relief turning away 17-of-20 shots sent his way.

The Raiders broke through on the scoreboard with a short-handed tally at the 9:46 mark of the second. With the puck in the Prince Albert zone, McClennon fired a shot from the left shot that missed the net and the puck rimmed around the boards out of the Prince Albert zone on the left wing.

Raiders veteran right-winger Evan Herman chased down the loose puck and zipped down the left wing into the Winnipeg zone. Herman passed the puck across the face the Winnipeg goal backdoor to Prince Albert overage captain Reece Vitelli.

Vitelli popped home his third of the playoffs to trim the Ice lead to 5-1 heading to the second intermission. The miracle comeback wasn’t to be.

The Ice started the third with a three-goal surge pushing their advantage out to 8-1 by the 8:17 mark of the frame. Benson started the surge with his second goal of the contest, star centre Matthew Savoie netted his first of the playoffs for the second tally of the surge and McClennon capped the outburst with his second of the contest.

Jonas Woo scored his first career WHL playoff goal on Friday.

Raiders right-winger Sloan Stanick concluded the game’s scoring tipping home a point shot from standout defenceman Nolan Allan to round out the 8-2 final in favour of the Ice. Raiders star right-winger Ozzy Wiesblatt also picked up a helper on Stanick’s tally.

Daniel Hauser stopped 11 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Ice.

During the five games of the series, the Ice outscored the Raiders 27-9. Winnipeg also posted a 10-1 blowout victory in Game 3 of the set, which was held on Tuesday at the Art Hauser Centre.

The last time a WHL Playoffs were held back in 2019 the Raiders captured the league crown with a powerhouse squad. They took Game 7 of the WHL Championship Series 3-2 in overtime at the Art Hauser Centre with Dante Hannoun scoring the extra time winner.

After the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic gripped the world in March of 2020, the WHL post-season set for that year and in 2021 were nixed.

Wiesblatt was the only regular left from the 2018-19 campaign still on the Raiders roster as Prince Albert was eliminated from the 2022 post-season. Herman and Allan are the only two other Raiders players who saw action during the regular season in the 2018-19 WHL title winning campaign.

The 2021-22 Raiders were in a reload campaign, so it was still big for them to make the post-season. Vitelli and overage defenceman Remy Aquilon both graduate after aging out of the major junior level for the Prince Albert side.

Ozzy Wiesblatt had an assist on the Raiders final goal.

As for the Ice, they move on in the WHL Playoffs as a powerhouse with incredible depth. They have a great opportunity to go all the way.

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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Ice return to top of WHL

Winnipeg wins ninth straight, ready for post-season grind

The Ice celebrate a goal from Jack Finley (#26).

The Winnipeg Ice jumped back on top of the WHL mountain and showed they are ready for the post-season grind.

On Wednesday night before 2,808 spectators at the SaskTel Centre, the Ice won their ninth straight contest downing a game Saskatoon Blades side 4-2 in a WHL regular season clash. The Ice jumped back to the top of the overall WHL standings with a 45-9-3-2 mark having picked up standings points in 13 straight contests posting 11 wins, one overtime loss and one shootout setback over that run of games.

Winnipeg sits two points up on the 45-12-2-1 Edmonton Oil Kings for top spot overall in the WHL with one game in hand.

Ice centre Zachary Benson (#9) battles to the puck from his net.

During their nine-game winning streak, the Ice are showing they have the depth and they are capable of grinding out wins in tight checking contests. They are doing their best to show they are ready to make a long run through the WHL playoffs.

The most impressive part of the Ice victory on Wednesday was the fact they picked up a win without their two best players in the lineup.

The Ice were without star centres Matthew Savoie and Conor Geekie, because they were in Kitchener, Ont., taking part in the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game. Savoie and Geekie are both in their 17-year-old seasons, and both are pegged to be selected early in the next NHL Entry Draft.

Jack Finley scored the first goal for the Ice on Wednesday.

Savoie leads the Ice in scoring with 78 points coming on 28 goals and 50 assists in 56 games. He is also a plus-39 in the plus-minus department.

Geekie sits fourth in team scoring recording 59 points coming on 19 goals and 40 assists in 54 games, while posting a plus-33 rating.

Besides beating the Blades, the Ice slipped past the Prince Albert Raiders 3-2 in overtime at the Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert without Savoie and Geekie.

In Wednesday’s clash with the Blades, the Ice got out to a hot start.

They had the game’s first big scoring chance at the 7:26 mark of the opening frame. Ice star left-winger Mikey Milne got in alone in front of the Saskatoon goal, but he was robbed on a backhand shot thanks to a glove save by Blades overage star netminder Nolan Maier.

Jakin Smallwood had the second goal for the Ice on Wednesday.

Just before the midway point of the first, the Ice broke through on the scoreboard as power forward Jack Finley blasted home his 21^st of the season off a midrange shot to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

The Ice kept the pressure coming. A few minutes after their opening goal, Ice centre Evan Friesen had a dangerous scoring chance off a rebound, but he was turned away on a kick save by Maier.

With 2:10 remaining in the first, Ice right-winger Jakin Smallwood set up in the left slot and one-timed home a setup pass from linemate Zachary Benson to increase the Ice’s advantage to 2-0.

In the finals seconds of the opening frame, the Blades had a quality scoring chance from import right-winger Egor Sidorov. Working on the power play, Sidorov drove a shot from the left boards on goal, but he was denied by the glove hand of sophomore netminder Daniel Hauser.

Tristen Robins had the Blades first goal on Wednesday.

The Ice held a 13-4 after 20 minutes and could have had a bigger lead had it not been for the play of Maier.

In the second, the Ice showed they could withstand a pushback from a quality foe, as the Blades came out with some fire. With 7:14 remaining in the second, Blades star overage centre Tristen Robins netted his 31^st goal of the season to cut the Ice lead to 2-1.

Inside the final 76 seconds of the second, the Blades had a couple of big chances to even the score while working on the power play. Blades standout left-winger Brandon Lisowsky was denied on a drive from the left slot.

Chase Wheatcroft scored the third goal for the Ice on Wednesday.

In the dying seconds of the frame, Blades sophomore left-winger Vaughn Watterodt had a point blank chance, but he was stopped by Hauser.

At the 2:06 mark of the third, the Ice extended their lead to 3-1 when 19-year-old left-winger Chase Wheatcroft deflected home a point shot from defenceman Omen Harmacy.

Down two goals, the Blades didn’t go away. Just under six minutes after the Ice went up 3-1, the Blades cut the lead to 3-2 when rookie right-winger Tyler Parr roofed home a shot from the front of the Winnipeg goal after receiving a sweet setup pass from Watterodt.

Tyler Parr scored the Blades second goal on Wednesday.

From that point, the Ice were able to tighten up their checking to prevent the Blades from getting the equalizer.

With 26 seconds remaining in the third, Ice overage defenceman Nolan Orzeck sealed the win shooting home a long-distance empty-net goal from his own blue-line to round out the 4-2 final score in Winnipeg’s favour.

Hauser stopped 16 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Ice. Nolan Maier turned away 25-of-28 shots to take the setback in net for the Blades (33-22-3-1).

In the win over the Blades, 10 different players picked up at least one point for the Ice. 

Veteran offensive-defenceman Carson Lambos collected two assists and was the only Ice player to have a multi-point night.

Carson Lambos recorded two assists for the Ice on Wednesday.

Wednesday’s clash was also the last regular season encounter between the Ice and Blades, and the Ice claimed six out of those eight head-to-head contests.

Saskatoon had a solid effort against the Ice. The Blades will continue their quest to lock up a playoff spot when return to action on Friday when they host the Regina Pats (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

“The Bridge City Bunch” can lock up a playoff berth by collecting four more standings points.

The Ice get back at it on Saturday when they host the Prince Albert Raiders (7 p.m. local time, Wayne Fleming Arena).

The Ice celebrate their win on Wednesday.

Winnipeg is ready to win right now. Considering a sizable group of their best players are in the 17-year-old age group, the Ice might be at the start of a run where they will be a force in the WHL for some time to come.

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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If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.