The Fort McMurray Oil Barons were lucky to escape the first period in a one-one tie situation Friday night as the Camrose Kodiaks outshot the MOB 18-6 through the first 20 minutes.
Forbes Ploszaj, making his Oil Barons debut was great, especially in the first making a number of big time saves to keep his team in the game that they would end up losing 7-2.
“I thought he [Plozsaj] was good, I really can’t blame him,” said Oil Barons Head Coach Tom Keca. “The first goal was a tic-tac-toe play the second and the third one were seeing-eye shots from the point and to be honest just an unwillingness to tie up sticks.”
The Arizona native would end up turning aside 29 of 36 shots faced.
Fort McMurray held a 2-1 lead 6:37 in the second period following a Will Conley marker, his teammate in Brooks Hayden Ursulak scored the MOB’s first goal to tie the game in the dying minutes of the first.
“I thought the first period we were a little mesmerized it took us 12 or 13 minutes just to sort of figure out […] we’re going to be in a tight hockey game here,” said Oil Barons Head Coach Tom Keca on the ROCK 97.9 post-game show. “When you’ve got a big team you can sort of just out-muscle teams down low. We gave up a lot of garbage goals just from us running around.”
A Jordan Steenbergen holding minor 9:27 into the second period gave the Kodiaks a power-play in which they hit the crossbar and had a number of quality scoring chances that seemed to be where the tides turned.
Angus Scott opened the scoring in the game six minutes into the first, following the MOB’s pair of goals Camrose would score six unanswered from with another from Scott, a pair from Trevor Costello and singles from Cam Gotaas, Tyler Morrison, and Jake Dube.
“While we see improvements in a lot of the players that has to continue as we move forward, this would be a waste if we don’t continue to see those improvements.”
The Oil Barons fired 18 shots towards Patrick Gora, an even six per period. Camrose converted on one of three power-plays while Fort McMurray was blanked on four chances.
They’ll host the Whitecourt Wolverines Saturday night with puck-drop scheduled for 8 p.m. at the Casman Centre.
Article courtesy of mymcmurray.com.
Photographer: Dan Lines