 |
| Oil Kings LW Jake Neighbours, left, drives on Raiders D Sergie Sapego. |
The Oil
Kings head coach recalls the time when the Oil Kings first met the Raiders this
season last Nov. 28, and the results weren’t particularly good for his side.
The Raiders skated away with a 6-3 victory at Rogers Place in Edmonton to
improve to 25-1 at the time.
“When we played them at the beginning of the year, they were
on their roll,” said Lauer. “At that time, we were a very young and immature
team.
“We probably wanted to get their autographs more than wanted
to play against them. We just sat back and watched, and they pretty much took
it to us. As you play teams like this, you learn an awful lot.
“Not only do you learn, it makes your team better, when you
play good teams. There was a lot that we took away every time we played these
guys all year. There was something that we were able to take from them what
they did as a team and kind of bring it into our group.”
Having missed the playoffs the previous two seasons, the Oil
Kings continued to improve as a team from that first meeting with the Raiders.
Last Dec. 12, they dropped a 6-5 decision in overtime to the Raiders in Prince
Albert.
 |
| Raiders D Brayden Pachal, right, closes on Oil Kings LW Quinn Benjafield. |
The two squads are now battling in the WHL’s Eastern
Conference Championship series. The best-of-seven set is tied at 1-1.
Games 3 and 4 are set for Rogers Place in Edmonton on
Tuesday and Wednesday respectively with a 7 p.m. local start times on both
nights.
Prince
Albert finished first overall in the WHL’s regular season posting a 54-10-2-2
record and was rated second in the final CHL Top 10 rankings. As a result, the
Raiders are pegged as favourites in the Eastern Conference final against
Edmonton.
The Oil
Kings topped the Central Division and finished fifth overall in the WHL
standings with a 42-18-4-4 mark, and they were an honourable mention in the
final CHL Top 10 rankings. They are proving to be a formidable foe.
Lauer
has seen the improvement in his club each time they’ve played the Raiders.
“The next time we played them we were better against them,”
said Lauer. “When we play good teams, the good comes from our team.”
As for Prince Albert, Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid is
looking for his side to hit the reset button for the upcoming clash.
“We’ve won two there, so we feel comfortable playing on the
road,” said Habscheid. “It is the way it is.
“We didn’t want to lose a home game for sure, but they are a
good team.”
 |
| Trey Fix-Wolansky scored on Saturday for the Oil Kings. |
“Game 1 was kind of a feel out game,” said Neighbours, who
has four goals and seven assists in the Oil Kings 12 playoff games. “Both teams
are kind of seeing what is coming.
“(Game 2) was probably what this whole series is going to be
like, lots of physicality. I don’t mind the physical game. I’m out there
throwing my body around and obviously taking a couple of hits too.”
Another
plotline from the series revolves around the Oil Kings top line of right-winger
Quinn Benjafield, centre Vince Loschiavo and left-winger and captain Trey
Fix-Wolansky going against the Raiders top defensive pair of captain Brayden
Pachal and Zack Hayes.
The unit of
Benjafield, Loschiavo and Fix-Wolansky has been held to one goal so far in the
series. That tally was a big one as Fix-Wolansky netted the equalizer in the
third period of Game 2 on Saturday in Prince Albert to force a 3-3 tie and
ultimately overtime.
Neighbours
score the overtime winner to give Edmonton a 4-3 victory.
Pachal said
he was all set to continue to team with Hayes to go against Edmonton’s top
line.
“We’re used to it now,” said Pachal. “We’ve been doing it
all year.
“Every team has top players, and it is our job to shut them
down. Obviously, those guys are good players, and we just have to do our job.”
Over the
course of the campaign, the Raiders have received praise for the work done by their
starting six on defence including Pachal, Hayes, Jeremy Masella, Max Martin,
Sergei Sapego and Kaiden Guhle.
The back
end is a veteran one as Pachal, Hayes, Masella, Martin and Sapego are all in
their 19-year-old seasons, while Guhle is in his 16-year-old rookie campaign.
 |
| Zack Hayes has been tough on defence for the Raiders. |
Gavlas is playing through his first full season in the WHL and is a plus-11 in the plus-minus department in the post-season.
Wyatt
McLeod and Ethan Cap are in their 18-year-old campaigns, while Matthew
Robertson is a 17-year-old sophomore.
“We’re really in sync,” said Robertson. “We rolling the
lines pretty much most of the time.
“I think we are doing a really good job.”
As for the
Raiders, they will be looking to recapture home ice advantage in the series
aiming to get a win in Edmonton. Physical left-winger Justin Nachbaur said his
Raiders just have to avoid dwelling on the 4-3 overtime loss in Game 2 on
Saturday in Prince Albert.
“It was a tough one,” said Nachbaur. “We have to bounce back
as a team.
“That is the way it goes right now. It is playoffs. They are
a good team.
“You have to do what we have to do. We have to play hard.”
Extra attention likely to be paid on play in
the crease
 |
| Andrew Fyten celebrates his goal for the Oil Kings on Saturday. |
The
best-of-seven series between the teams is tied 1-1. Game 3 is set for Tuesday
at 7 p.m. local time at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
Following
the Oil Kings 4-3 overtime victory in Game 2 in Prince Albert on Saturday,
Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid said he didn’t like the fact the officials
allowed his star starting goaltender Ian Scott to be knocked around quite a
bit.
“The one
thing that concerned me a little bit is it was kind of open season on our
goaltender,” said Habscheid. “We depend on the officials to defend our
goaltender, because we have no recourse anymore these days.
“He (Scott)
was getting bumped and stuck and ran all game. We expect them (the officials)
to take care of that, and they didn’t. That is a little bit disappointing.”
The main
sticking point for Habscheid occurred when Oil Kings overage centre Andrew
Fyten scored a power-play goal with 28.4 seconds remaining in the first period
to force a 2-2 tie in the contest.
A point
shot from Oil Kings defenceman Matthew Robertson deflected in off Fyten’s leg
and off of Scott’s skate into the Prince Albert net.
Habscheid believed
there should have been goaltender interference on the play, which would have
nullified the goal. The bench boss said Scott is doing his best to track the
puck and fight through people to stop the puck.
 |
| Raiders goalie Ian Scott battled through traffic on Saturday. |
“If it is, just let us know, but that can’t happen.”
Oil Kings
head coach Brad Lauer said his club is emphasizing driving to the net, and plan
to keep going hard to the Raiders net as the series continues.
“Their D do a really good job of getting into you,” said
Lauer. “They box you out.
“We found it really tough in Game 1 to get to the front of
the net. Obviously as you make change and do adjustments during the series as it goes along here. We had to
find ways to get to him (Scott) and make things difficult for him.
“We did it a couple of times. Did we do it enough? I don’t
think so. We need to do more of that. We need to create that second and third
opportunity. If we do that, we will be OK.”
Looking at
available video replays online of Fyten’s goal, it appears the veteran centre
could have contacted Scott, but the video wasn’t conclusive.
Raiders
supporters could argue that wasn’t a goal and have a good case. Oil Kings
supporters could say that was a goal and could be correct.
In that
type of situation, the call on the ice would stand.
Jeff D’Andrea
of paNOW.com appeared to get the most definitive look with a still photo from
his press box location. From his still picture, it looks more conclusive Fyten
bumped Scott helping the goal to be scored.
Of course,
no official in the building would have seen that picture, and D’Andrea himself
might not have noticed that photo until after all the media interviews were
completed that night.
From my gut
perspective from what I have seen with video and still photos after the fact, I
believe that was a case of incidental contact and the goal should have been disallowed.
I believe it was a missed call, and I understand how it can be missed.
During the
flow and the moment of the game itself, it felt like a goal.
Still,
Habscheid’s post-game comments will make all eyes pay extra attention towards
what happens in the goal crease for the rest of the series that could
potentially play out to another three to five games.
If you have any
comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them
to stankssports@gmail.com.
-------
