Power player powers Oil Kings, comes up empty for Blades

Max Curran (#8) celebrates scoring a second period power-play goal.

The power play can giveth, and the power play and taketh away.

The Edmonton Oil Kings and Saskatoon Blades learned that lesson in a huge way in a head-to-head WHL regular season clash played before 3,934 spectators on Friday at the SaskTel Centre. The visiting Oil Kings went 3-for-6 with the man advantage and skated away with a 3-1 victory.

The Blades came up empty on six power-play opportunities and had to wonder what might have been. Saskatoon entered the contest having scored on 39-of-134 power-play chances on the campaign for a 29.1 per cent success rate to rate fourth overall in the WHL. The Blades penalty kill was about middle of the pack with a 77.9 per cent success rate entering play on Friday.

Max Curran scored two power-play goals for the Oil Kings.

Edmonton’s power play entering play on Friday was 28-for-139 for a 20.1 per cent success rate, which was in the bottom half of the league. The Oil Kings were also tied with the Wenatchee Wild for giving up the most short-handed goals against at eight. The penalty kill was a different story for Edmonton as the Oil Kings had an 81.8 per cent success rate entering play on Friday to sit in the top four on the circuit.

The win was a sixth straight for the Oil Kings, who improved to 28-7-3-1 to sit in a tie with the Prince Albert Raiders (28-5-4) for second and third overall in the Eastern Conference. Edmonton was rated sixth in the latest CHL Top 10 Rankings that were released on Tuesday, while the Raiders are third.

Evan Gardner makes one of his 26 save in goal for the Blades.

The Blades saw their four game winning streak come to an end on Friday. They fell to 21-15-2-1 to sit fifth overall in the Eastern Conference.

Going into Friday’s contest, it wasn’t expected the Oil Kings would outshine the Blades on the power play. That ended up being exactly what happened.

The Oil Kings broke on the scoreboard first scoring on the power play on their first shot of the game at the 4:06 mark of the opening frame. Oil Kings import right-winger Miroslav Holinka had the puck along the left wing and fed a pass across the front of the Saskatoon net to star centre Max Curran positioned by the right faceoff circle.

Curran, who helped Czechia win silver at the world juniors that concluded on Monday in Minnesota, one-timed home his 12^th of the season to give the visitors their one-goal edge.

Miroslav Holinka had a pair of assists for the Oil Kings.

With 8:30 remaining in the first, the Blades had a huge chance to pull even on the scoreboard. Blades rookie import left-winger Elias Pul deflected a point shot from the front of the Edmonton net only to be denied by Oil Kings reliable 17-year-old rookie netminder Parker Snell.

At the 4:06 mark of the second, the Oil Kings pushed their advantage out to 2-0 scoring their second power-play goal that was almost a carbon copy of their first. Holinka had the puck up high by the left point and slid a pass to the right side of the Saskatoon net to Curran. From a bad angle, Curran slid home his second of the contest and 13^th of the campaign to give Edmonton a two-goal advantage.

Isaac Poll had the Blades lone goal on Friday.

Oil Kings star 19-year-old defenceman Ethan MacKenzie picked up assists on both of those first two power-play goals. MacKenzie was playing his first game with the Oil Kings after having helped Canada win bronze at the world junior that wrapped up on Monday.

By the time the second period came to an end, the Blades had failed to score on five of their chances with the power play. They still managed to gain some momentum before the second frame ended.

With three seconds remaining in the second, the Blades got a big traction goal from sophomore 18-year-old defenceman Isaac Poll. Poll had the puck by the right side boards in the Edmonton zone above the right faceoff circle and floated home a shot for his first tally of the campaign to cut the Oil Kings lead to 2-1.

Blake Fiddler scored a key third period power-play goal.

The Oil King proceeded to get a key dagger goal at the 4:38 mark of the third period scoring their third power-play marker on the night. Edmonton defenceman Blake Fiddler took a shot from the point that deflected off a couple of bodies into the Saskatoon net to push the visitors lead out to 3-1.

With 6:56 remaining in the third, Blades 17-year-old right-winger Zach Olsen was given a double minor for high sticking and that infraction will be automatically reviewed by the WHL office for a possible suspension. The Oil Kings were unable to build on their lead on that four-minute power play.

Evan Gardner turned away 26 shots taking the setback in goal for the Blades. Snell stopped 19 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Oil Kings, who have won two-of-three meetings with the Blades this season.

The Oil Kings return to action on Saturday when they travel to Prince Albert to take on the Raiders (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

The Oil Kings celebrate their win on Friday night.

The Blades are off until Wednesday when they host the Brandon Wheat Kings (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

Going forward, the Blades will be looking to rediscover their prolific touch on the power play.

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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