4 days Ago By Edmonton Journal
Playoffs are equal amounts of inspiration and perspiration but if you don’t have goaltending, the third part of the equation, the first two traits often don’t matter. In Wednesday’s Game 4 in the Edmonton Oil Kings-Prince Albert Raiders first-round WHL series at Rogers Place, the home team got the saves and the visitors didn’t, at least early in the game. Strange stuff, considering the Raiders red-hot goalie Max Hildebrand had stopped 109 of 115 Oil Kings shots in the first three games and the Oil Kings were going with their backup tender Ethan Simcoe for the second straight outing as No.
1 Alex Worthington was cheerleading from the bench. But in this one, the Oil Kings got to the 20-year-old Hildebrand, the busiest WHL goalie in regular-season, for two goals on their first five shots and three on the first nine while Simcoe once again tossed another strong game after a 3-2 win in Game 3. In the end, the Oil Kings, the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference playoff, held off the No.
2 seed Raiders by another 3-2 count to lead the series three games to one, with Game 5 back in the Raiders loud Art Hauser barn Friday night. Lukas Sawchyn had the only goal of the four-shot first period for the Oil Kings, diving to take a pass from Parker Alcos and stuff it past Hildebrand in the game’s 11th minute before he crashed into the end boards. Shaken up on the terrific play while being hooked by Ethan Bibeau, the probable middle-round 2025 draft pick skated slowly to the bench and he didn’t return with what looked like an upper-body issue, maybe a shoulder/arm.
In the second, the Oil Kings scored on their first attempt at Hildebrand 69 seconds in to make it 2-zip when Gavin Hodnett’s harmless-looking shot on a power play hit the goalie’s stabbing mitt and the puck tumbled into the net. Then, Czechia world junior team forward Adam Jecho, moving onto the top line with Lucas’ brother Gracyn and Hodnett, lifted a bad-angle goalmouth shot over Hildebrand off a Hodnett feed. Their ninth shot of the night.
Hodnett now has seven points in the first four games and Gracyn Sawchyn had two helpers to give him six, while Jecho, the St. Louis Blues third-round pick, had his best game of the playoffs with a dominant showing. At the other end of the goaltending battle, Simcoe, who started the third game after Worthington won Game 1 3-1 last Friday and lost Game 2 6-1 in a poor Oil Kings defensive effort the next night, was rock-solid until the last 10 minutes when his teammates betrayed him.
The former BCJHL goalie who started the season with the Coquitlam Express, was pitching a shutout until former Oil Kings forward Riley Kovacevic scored a shortie midway through the third. Then Alcos gave the puck away on an errant pass in the final three minutes as Niall Crocker ripped one past Simcoe from the high slot. Even so, Simcoe made 30 stops to Hildebrand’s 17.
The game ended in a near brawl after Crocker cross-checked Josh Mori outside the crease and he was down for several seconds. This ‘n that: Graycyn Sawchyn, Florida’s second-round draft pick, made the second all-star team in the Eastern Conference off his 77 points and seven game-winning goals ..
. Lukas Sawchyn had 55 points during the regular season in his first year with Oil Kings ..
. Oil Kings defenceman Ethan MacKenzie, who had the winner late in Game 3, had a very strong skating game and hit the crossbar on a second-period breakaway which would have made it 4-0 ..
. Duane Sutter’s son Brody, 33, who played pro for 10 years, was one of the two referees in Game 4 ..
. Oil Kings defenceman Niko Tsakumis was hurt in Game 3 Tuesday and joined fellow injured D Rhys Pederson on the shelf..
