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 | On night in which Mitch Moroz potted a natural hat-trick, the Edmonton Oil Kings still found a way to fall to the Brandon Wheat Kings by a score of 4-3 in Wednesday night WHL action. Four second period power play goals from the Wheat Kings proved to be the difference, despite the return of Curtiz Lazar to the Oil Kings lineup. | | Edmonton - October 3, 2013 - Entering Wednesday night’s game against the Brandon Wheat Kings, the Edmonton Oil Kings possessed one of the WHL’s best penalty kills.
Not anymore.
The Oil Kings (2-3-0-0) allowed four power-play goals in the second period as the (3-2-0-0) man advantage clicked at a 50 per cent pace and overcame a natural hat trick from Mitch Moroz in a 4-3 Wheat Kings win in western Manitoba.
“You can’t put yourself behind the eight ball taking some bad penalties,” said Oil Kings Head Coach Derek Laxdal. “We gave up four power-play goals, which I don’t think we’ve ever done.”
Edmonton finished 0-4 on their power play, also among the best in the WHL in the early going this season, and had two of them erased by penalties.
The Oil Kings dominated the shot clock early in the game, outshooting Brandon 17-5 in the first period, but couldn’t get past Wheat Kings Netminder Curtis Honey, not even on a penalty shot attempt by Henrik Samuelsson.
Brandon cracked the scoreless tie 1:05 into the second period on a power-play marker from Tim McGauley, and struck twice more in the next eight minutes as Ryan Pulock, who finished with two goals and two assists in his first game back from New York Islanders training camp, and Jayce Hawryluk beat Tyler Santos, who was making his first WHL start.
The three goals chased Santos, as he was replaced by Tristan Jarry after stopping eight of 11 shots he faced.
Moroz then took over, rifling off a trio of goals in just 2:32 to tie the game back for the Oil Kings, recording his first career WHL hat trick. Moroz now leads the Oil Kings with six goals on the season.
“It’s simple: you take pucks to the net good things are going to happen, and he did that tonight,” Laxdal said of Moroz. “We need more of that from our other group of players. You’ve got to go to the dirty areas to score goals.
“Mitch just has to play his game,” Laxdal continued. “He’s a power forward that has to be hard on the forecheck, go to the net hard and playing on the line he’s playing on there’s going to be some scoring opportunities for him.”
Pulock, however, struck again with 1:01 to play in the second period to round out the scoring for the night.
“We had some good looks for the third period and Honey made some good saves,” Laxdal said.
Honey finished with 33 saves as the Oil Kings out shot Brandon 36-23, while Jarry stopped 11 of 12 shots he faced in relief of Santos.
The Oil Kings are next in action Friday when they visit the Prince Albert Raiders.
NOTES: Andrew Koep, Brandon Ralph and Jesse Mills were scratched for the Oil Kings, as was recently acquired centre Reid Petryk, who will join the team for Friday’s game in Prince Albert. … Mads Eller returned to the lineup for the first time since last Wednesday against Regina when he suffered a scary crash into the end boards. … Curtis Lazar played his first game of the season for the Oil Kings after returning from Ottawa Senators camp earlier this week.
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