The Fort McMurray Oil Barons left Camrose Saturday night with a bitter taste in their mouths after squandering a two goal lead to fall 3-2 in overtime to the Kodiaks.
The MOB (8-6-4) jumped out to a 2-0 second period lead only to have the Kodiaks (9-8-2) chip away and pull off the come back win after an unfortunate deflection in overtime.
Jacob Kendall drove wide down the right wing and cut in towards the MOB goal. Reed Morison and Taner Miller got their stick on the puck and it deflected up in the air and landed in behind Chris Curr before trickling across the goal line 56 seconds into the extra period.
For a second night in a row, the MOB used the middle frame to produce all of their offence. Nicholas McCarry opened the scoring 12:23 into the period when he deflected a Jack Hamly shot through the legs of the Kodiaks Griffin Bowerman for his second of the year.
The MOB struck again 1:17 later while on a powerplay. Liam Izyk beat a screened Bowerman with a low hard shot for his third goal of the season to open up a 2-0 lead.
Trying to spark his team, Ethan Heidepriem dropped the gloves with the MOB’s Ryan Conroy. The small stature defenceman is as tough as they come and sat down the Kodiaks player with a flurry of rights.
The fight may have got the Kodiaks going as they got a goal back before the period was out when Kyler Kupka finished off a two-on-one with Damon Zimmer to cut the MOB lead in half.
In the third period, a turnover right in the slot by the MOB led to the tying goal when McKenzie Welke wired a shot past the glove hand of Curr to even the score 2-2.
The MOB out shot the Kodiaks 30-28 in the game and picked up three of a possible four points on their road trip.
The Barons return home for a busy week at the Casman Centre with four games on the schedule. The MOB will welcome the Sherwood Park Crusaders to town for a pair of mid-week games on Tuesday and Wednesday before entertaining Brooks on Friday and Camrose on Saturday. Puck drop for all games is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Written by: Taylor Pope, mymcmurray.com
Photo by: Dan Lines