Edmonton Oil Kings Lose Pair of Opening Weekend Games – Hockey Writers – WHL

The Edmonton Oil Kings open their 2024-25 regular season on back-to-back weekends against the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Friday (Sept. 20) and the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday (Sept. 21). Going into the doubleheader weekend, the Oil Kings were without several players left at NHL camps including Adam Jecho, Miroslav Holinka, Marshall Finnie and Gracyn Sawchyn. With their program set up to the best of their abilities, let's take a look at how their first games of the Western Hockey League (WHL) season went.

Hurricanes Edge Oil Kings 3-1

The Oil Kings opened the scoring in their first game with a goal by Landon Hanson 8:49 into the first period, assisted by Gavin Hodnett. The Hurricanes tied it early in the second half as Logan McCutcheon scored 4:27 into the middle, with assists from Hayden Pakkala and goalkeeper Brady Smith. Kale Tipler opened the scoring in the third period to give the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead with more than 15 minutes left in the game, with Pakkala and Luke Cozens picking up assists. Leo Braillard scored with five seconds left to make it 3-1, McCutcheon and Tristen Doyle getting assists.

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Goaltender Kolby Hay played well in his season opener, stopping 23 of 25 shots and posting a .920 save percentage (SV%). Joe Iginla and Lukas Sawchyn played well off each other in their WHL debuts, and it looks like that duo could be very dangerous offensively.

The Tigers beat the Fat Kings 4-2

In the second game of their opening weekend, the Oil Kings took on the reigning champions from the Tigers. They chose to reward Iginla and Sawchyn for their strong performance against the Hurricanes and promote them to the starting lineup, which was a strong decision, but the team failed to get the two points they needed. The Tigers opened the scoring 7:52 into the first period on a goal by Markus Ruck assisted by Nate Corbet. They didn't stop there as they scored two more goals and entered the second half leading 3-0 with goals from Matt Paranych and Liam Ruck.

The Oil Kings grabbed the momentum back midway through the second period when Sawchyn got his first WHL goal with assists from Iginla and Hodnett, but the Tigers answered three minutes later and made it 4-1 in the final frame on a goal from the Oil Kings. Schaeffer Gordon-Carroll. Late in the third, Iginla scored his first goal of the season on assists from Hodnett and Josh Mori, and that would be the final goal as they would lose 4-2 and drop their record to 0-2-0-0.

Takeaways From Opening Weekend

The Oil Kings may have lost both of their season openers, but they had some good things to do over the weekend. First, Hodnett is still very dangerous in attack and looks poised to be among the top scorers this season. His three assists in two games tied him for the team lead in points, and I doubt he'll drop from that spot any time soon. Second, Sawchyn and Iginla appear to be everything fans have hoped for, and both could explode offensively as middle-six hitters and find more roles as the season progresses.

The Oil Kings will have a strengthened roster for their home opener next weekend as Miroslav Holinka and Marshall Finnie were released from the Toronto Maple Leafs, and should join the team as soon as this week. As they look to bounce back from a tough 2023-24 campaign and hope to make the playoffs this season, an 0-2 start isn't ideal, but with plenty of games left, hopefully they can gain confidence and get back in the win column on Saturday (Sept. 28) against Calgary Hitmen.

As the 2024-25 hockey season approaches, be sure to stay tuned Hockey Writers as your source for news from the NHL and the world of hockey.

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