Oil Kings’ Holinka hammers Blades with hat trick

Edmonton evens series with Saskatoon 2-2

The Oil Kings celebrate a hat trick goal from Miroslav Holinka (#92).

Miroslav Holinka is becoming the Edmonton Oil Kings version of Connor McDavid.

On Wednesday, the 20-year-old import centre showed why he has become one of the WHL’s superstars. In Game 4 of a best-of-seven first round playoff series against the host Saskatoon Blades, Holinka fired home a hat trick and was a plus-two in the plus- minus department to power the Oil Kings to a 5-2 victory to disappoint most of the 4,834 spectators at the SaskTel Centre.

With the win, the Oil Kings even the series at 2-2. Game 5 is set for Friday at 6 p.m. local time for Rogers Place in Edmonton. Game 6 is slated for Sunday at 2 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.

Miroslav Holinka was on fire for the Oil Kings on Wednesday night.

Holinka, who has a signed NHL entry-level contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, came into Wednesday’s contest having posted two goals, two assists and an even rating in the previous three games of the set. He nearly doubled his offensive output for the post-season in one contest.

Oil Kings head coach Jason Smith said Holinka gave his squad the boost they needed to even the series with the Blades.

“He is an experienced player in this league,” said Smith. “He is a 20-year-old guy, and he has expectations to play well and lead our team.

“His game tonight was outstanding, and it was a 200-foot game. He played well on both ends. He was out on the penalty kill and did a real good job.

Lukas Sawchyn had one goal and two assists for the Oil Kings.

“That is what you need from good players is good effort.”

Thanks to his hat trick performance, Holinka’s line had a great night. On Wednesday, Holinka for most of the contest centred a forward unit that contained rookie left-winger Kayden Stroeder, who turned 17-years-old in early March, and star veteran right-winger Lukas Sawchyn.

Stroeder finished with two assists and a plus-one rating, while Sawchyn posted one goal, two assists and a plus-two rating.

“They’re really skilled players,” said Blades head coach Dan DaSilva. “They are some of the best players in the league.

Kayden Stroeder had a pair of assists for the Oil Kings.

“They can make you look silly, if you’re not playing the body on them. I thought tonight we made it too easy on them and kind of let them off the hook a little bit. We’ve been doing a really good job on those guys.

“They are high-end players. They are going to have their nights, (and) they are going to get their looks. We’ve got to try and do a better job of limiting those looks and being more physical on them.”

At the 7:34 mark of the first period, Holinka opened the game’s scoring firing home a shot from the left slot to give the visitors a 1-0 edge.

With 5:39 remaining in the first, Blades 18-year-old centre Kazden Mathies had a loose puck deflect off his skate from a rebound in front of the Edmonton net to even the score at 1-1.

Before the first came to an end, the Oil Kings would go back in front by scoring on the power play with 1:16 remaining in the stanza on a highlight reel effort by Holinka. Holinka skated through the Blades defence up through the centre of the Saskatoon zone and put home a close in backhand shot for his second of the contest to give the visitors a 2-1 edge.

Kazden Mathies had the Blades first goal on Wednesday.

Sawchyn said it is a blast to play on the same line as Holinka, especially when the Czech product makes plays like he does like on his second tally on Wednesday.

“He (Holinka) is a great player and super smart,” said Sawchyn. “He can pretty much throw from anywhere on the ice, so it is fun giving him the puck.”

At the 4:29 mark of the second, the Oil Kings top line rushed into the Saskatoon zone, and Stroeder dropped a smart pass to veteran star right-winger Lukas Sawchyn. Sawchyn fired a perfect snipe to the top right corner of the Saskatoon net to push the Oil Kings lead to 3-1.

The Blades would answer back with 4:27 remaining in the second with a goal from star right-winger Hunter Laing. Laing tapped home a puck at the left side of the Edmonton net after receiving a cross crease feed from veteran defenceman Tristen Doyle to cut the Oil Kings lead to 3-2.

Hunter Laing had the Blades second goal on Wednesday.

Just when the Blades seemed to have the momentum, Holinka would complete his hat trick at an absolute dagger of a time. After catching the Blades on a bad line change, Oil Kings captain Gavin Hodnett received a cross ice pass at the left side of the Saskatoon net from Sawchyn.

Blades star netminder Evan Gardner made a sprawling save but the puck rebounded out to Holinka at the right side of the Saskatoon net. Holinka popped home his hat trick tally with 21.5 seconds remaining in the frame to make the Oil Kings advantage sit at 4-2.

Mathies said his squad has to do a better job at playing against Holinka’s line.

“I think we have to be hard on them and not allow them to make just like the cute plays,” said Mathies. “We have to play physical and close the gap on them as quick as you can, so they can’t make those plays.”

Fans at the SaskTel Centre cheer on the Blades.

The Blades made a big push in the third outshooting the Oil Kings 14-7 in the frame, but they weren’t able to put any pucks past Oil Kings veteran netminder Ethan Simcoe. Saskatoon even got to work on a four-minute power play as Oil Kings centre Andrew O’Neill picked up a double-minor for slew-footing. That infraction will be automatically reviewed by the WHL Office for a possible suspension.

Oil Kings import right-winger Adam Jecho scored into an empty net with 2.2 seconds remaining in the third to round out the 5-2 final score in favour of the visitors.

Tristen Doyle had a slick assist for the Blades.

Gardner turned away 23-of-27 shots to take the setback in net for the Blades. Ethan Simcoe stopped 31 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Oil Kings. 

The Oil Kings are without 17-year-old rookie netminder Parker Snell with an undisclosed ailment. Associate player call up Elias Mitrikas, who is a 15-year-old who played for the North Shore Warriors Under-18 Prep Club, dressed as Edmonton’s backup netminder.

The Oil Kings finished third in the WHL’s Eastern Conference and fifth in the circuit’s overall regular season standings with a 45-18-3-2 mark. The Blades were sixth in the Eastern Conference and placed 10^th in the overall regular season standings with a 34-27-5-2 mark.

During the regular season, Saskatoon was a club that was consistently inconsistent. The Blades were able to go out and pick up victories against the top teams in the league and would turn around and lose to squads that missed the post-season and were at the bottom of the overall standings.

Landon Hanson sets to shoot in the offensive zone for the Oil Kings.

At the moment, the Blades have shown they can compete at the same level as the Oil Kings. DaSilva is confident in his group going into Game 5, and he believes his players will be better than they were in Game 4.

“I think that we lacked a little bit of bite in our game,” said DaSilva. “It was not the game that you’ve seen from our group through three games in the series.

“They are a good team, (and) we knew they were going to push back. They were going to have their best effort here tonight. They didn’t want to be going home down 3-1.

“It is a best of three series. Anything can happen. We feel comfortable playing in Roger’s Place.”

Smith said his Oil Kings didn’t expect the series against the Blades would be a short one. As the two clubs head into the deep waters of the series, Smith said his squad will just focus on the next game.

The Oil Kings celebrate their Game 4 win on Wednesday.

“I think we kind of talked about it from the start of the playoffs that it is a game by game reset,” said Smith. “You’ve got to be prepared to play hard games.

“It is going to be very competitive, and you’ve got to be emotionally and physically involved in it to wear through it.”

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Feisty affair – Oil Kings slip past Raider 5-4 in penalty filled clash

The Raiders and Oil Kings tangle in a second period scrum.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Jeff Truitt wanted to see his team getting going a touch quicker to counter a feisty foe.

On Friday, Truitt’s Prince Albert Raiders faced the Edmonton Oil Kings in a feisty WHL regular season contest that saw the two sides combine for 71 minute in penalties. The Oil Kings took 12 infractions for 35 minutes in penalties, and the Raiders had 14 infractions for 36 minutes in penalties.

When the dust settled, the Oil Kings edged the host Raiders 5-4 before a standing room crowd of 2,691 mostly unhappy spectators at the 2,580 seat Art Hauser Centre. The Oil Kings converted on 3-of-7 power-play chances in the contest, while the Raiders were 1-for-4 with the man advantage.

The Oil Kings celebrate a third period goal from Adam Jecho (#43).

The Edmonton side played an agitating brand of hockey that at times got under the skin of the Prince Albert players. Truitt, who is the Raiders head coach, said his squad just needs to navigate that aspect just a slight bit better.

“They’ve got speed, they’ve got size, and they’ve got grit,” said Truitt. “We’ve got to be smarter in that department as well.

“We can’t take the slashing penalties and the 10-minute misconducts. We just can’t take ourselves out of the game line that. This is where you’ve got to bite the bullet here a little bit.

“You know what? There is another game between these two teams, and we just have to show up earlier.”

Adam Jecho had the winning goal for the Oil Kings.

The Raiders and Oil Kings have split their four head-to-head encounters this season with each side collecting two regulation victories. They will meet for the fifth and final time in the regular season on Saturday, March 15 in Edmonton at Rogers Place at 7 p.m. local time.

Raiders star defenceman Lukas Dragicevic thought his squad played harder after the Oil Kings took the game to them in the opening 20 minutes. He said the biggest thing for his Raiders in the short term was to regroup for their next game.

The Raiders return to action on Saturday when they travel to Swift Current to take on the Broncos (7 p.m., InnovationPlex).

Lukas Dragicevic had a pair of goals for the Raiders.

Dragicevic said his club wants to play the Oil Kings again to improve upon what happened in Friday’s setback to the Edmonton side.

“We’re back in Edmonton’s building,” said Dragicevic noting the upcoming March 15 encounter. “We’re just going to continue to work hard, and we’re going to owe them one when we’re back there.”

Edmonton dominated the first period of Friday’s contest, but they weren’t able to crack on to the scoreboard due to the play of Raiders netminder Dimitri Fortin. Fortin was spectacular making 16 saves in the opening 20 minutes to keep the Oil Kings off the scoreboard.

The Raiders had just four shots on goal in the first 20 minutes, but one of those shots found its way into the Edmonton net. At the 5:14 mark of the stanza,

Tomas Mrsic had a pair of assists for the Raiders.

Dragicevic got the puck inside the left faceoff circle on a rush and wired home his 15^th tally of the season on the Raiders first shot on goal in the contest. That marker allowed the Raiders head into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead.

Prince Albert jumped into the second period with more intensity holding an 18-10 edge in shots on goal in what turned out to be a back and forth frame.

The Oil Kings evened the score at 1-1 just 1:45 into the second on a power-play goal from Gracyn Sawchyn. Sawchyn fired home a shot from the left side of the Prince Albert goal for the equalizer.

Import centre Miroslav Holinka added the Oil Kings second power-play goal at the 12:44 mark of the second to put the visitor up 2-1.

Rylen Roersma had three assists for the Oil Kings.

Raiders captain Justice Christensen put the host side back on even terms firing home his 21^st of the season at the 14:13 mark of the second to force a 2-2 tie. With 54.5 seconds to play in the second, Raiders star centre Aiden Oiring tallied on the power play slipping home a bad angle shot from the right side of the Edmonton goal to give Prince Albert a 3-2 lead.

Just when it seemed the Raiders would take that lead into the second intermission, Oil Kings agitating overage centre Marshall Finnie scored with 18.4 seconds remaining in the third to force a 3-3 tie.

“You have to play a complete 60 (minutes),” said Truitt. “In the second period, we started getting power plays.

Gracyn Sawchyn had the Oil Kings first goal on Friday.

“We picked up our pace a little bit and picked up our battle. Now the game gets going. We pushed back.

“I thought there was lots of intensity in the second and the third.”

With 5:56 remaining in the third, Oil Kings veteran right-winger Cole Miller scored off a set faceoff play to give the visitors a 4-3 lead. The visitors added a key insurance marker with 2:38 remaining in the third with a power-play goal coming off the stick of import right-winger Adam Jecho to give Edmonton a 5-3 advantage.

The Raiders didn’t go away. With Fortin pulled for an extra attacker, Dragicevic added his second of the contest and 16^th tally of the campaign with 86 seconds remaining in the third to cut the Oil Kings lead to 5-4. Prince Albert pressed hard in the final 86 second but was unable to come up with another equalizer.

Miroslav Holinka had the Oil Kings second goal on Friday.

“Obivously, the first period wasn’t too great,” said Dragicevic. “The second and third were.

“We got a goal on the power play that was huge. Obviously, they got a couple. Third period, I thought we battled hard, and they just ended up getting the last one.”

Dimitri Fortin turned away 36 shots to take the setback in net for the Raiders. Ethan Simcoe stopped 28 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Oil Kings.

Star left-winger Tomas Mrsic had a pair of assists for the Raiders. The Raiders were without star 20-year-old right-winger Rilen Kovacevic, who was serving a one-game suspension for being accessed a kneeing major and a game misconduct in 2-1 home ice overtime loss to the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Wednesday.

Justice Christensen had the Raiders second goal on Friday.

Rylen Roersma, who is a 20-year-old left-winger, recorded three assists and was a plus-two in the plus-minus department for Edmonton. Holinka had a pair of assists to go with his goal. 

The Oil Kings, who improved to 33-22-2-2 get back at it on Sunday when they travel to Saskatoon to face the Blades (4 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

The Raiders fell to 33-20-4-1 with the setback and now have the same amount of standings point as the Brandon Wheat Kings (32-18-4-3) at 71 for first in the East Division. Prince Albert holds the standings tiebreaker due to having more wins, but the Wheat Kings have one game in hand on the Raiders.

Josh Mori controls the puck for the Oil Kings.

The Saskatoon Blades (30-19-3-4) sit four points back of both the Raiders and Wheat Kings. Saskatoon has two games in hand on Prince Albert and one game in hand on Brandon.

Dragicevic said his squad is excited to be battling late in the regular season for first place in the East Division. During the stretch run, he expects his Raiders will face some more feisty battles from opponents like what they experienced against the Oil Kings on Friday.

“It is hockey, right,” said Dragicevic. “Everything is going to always be tough, and we like it that way.

The Oil Kings celebrate their win on Friday.

“That is how we want to play, and they obviously just beat is tonight, which sucks. We’ll never complain about things getting greasy like that. That is how we want to play, and we’re just going to continue to get on with our season.”

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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