Dowhaniuk Downs His Old Team
By Twitter - @MJWarriorsFun Instagram - @moosejawwarriors_history
It’s true that the Edmonton Oil Kings are in dead last place in the WHL.
But it’s also true that they won the Championship last season; and it’s also also true that they beat the Warriors the last time they met.
So, despite having only seven wins on the season, it wouldn’t have been in the Warriors best interest to take them lightly.
The Warriors fell flat against Lethbridge in their last outing, so a date with the struggling Oil Kings pitched itself as a perfect opportunity to get back on the winning track.
On another note, earlier in the season the Warriors traded Nathan Pilling, to Edmonton, for Logan Dowhaniuk, but Pilling hasn’t played a game for the Oil Kings since.
He’s been out with a lower body injury that occurred that exact game. Pilling was not on the ice.
Also also also, it was Pride Night at Rogers Place - photo credit Twitter
Your Moose Jaw Warriors wasted little time in exacting their sweet revenge.
The first goal came when Robert “Bobzilla” Baco knocked home a rebound on a Denton Mateychuk offering, in the second minute.
The tribe scored again in the 10th minute.
This time it was Jagger Firkus dropping to one knee, in the slot, to bang home a pass from Logan Dowhaniuk.
The goal was Firkus’ 25th and Denton Mateychuk got another assist on it.
Entering the game, Mateychuk trailed only Connor Bedard and his linemate Stanislav Svozil for the league lead in assists.
Denton Mateychuk had 2 assists in the first period - photo credit Twitter
Eric Alarie added a third goal before the period finished.
The goal was a dandy.
Alarie took advantage of a miscommunication between two Oil King blue-liners, he poked the puck free so as to send himself on a breakaway, skated the length of the ice and beat the opposition goalie, blocker side.
Eric Alarie scored a beauty - photo credit Twitter
The massacre continued early into the second period when Josh Hoekstra netted his seventh of the year.
His shot wasn’t the greatest but Ben Riche acting as a screen seemed to blindfold Edmonton’s goalie Kolby Hay and the puck found it’s way into the mesh.
Rilen Kovacevic got one back for the Kings halfway through the second frame.
The goal was a pretty one; similar to the one Alarie scored earlier.
Only after the goal Kovacevic slipped against the boards and crashed into the ice.
Mild hilarity ensued.
Until that point, Edmonton had put a lot of shots on Jackson Unger, that was the first to get past him. That’s how the period ended. 4-1, tribe.
That’s how the game finished.
Nobody was able to score in the third period. Despite ten Power Plays nobody scored a Power Play goal either.
Logan Dowhaniuk, in some sort of poetic justice, was named the game’s First Star, playing his best hockey against the guys he went to the Memorial Cup with.
Maybe it was that Edmonton ice.