January 2, 2017
The Oil Capitals ended 2016 off right with an impressive 7-4 win over the Portage Terriers on December 31 on the road. The Caps scored five of their seven goals on the power play, which was enough for a win and to put them in first place in the league on the power play running at 22.2%. More impressively, the Caps went 5 for 6 (83.3%) on the power play against the Terriers.
The Portage Terriers started the scoring with a power play goal from Ty Enns at 5:02 in the first assisted by Jordan Thomason and Riley Thiessen. The Terriers put one away again to stretch the lead to 2 at 13:35 with a power play goal from Ryan Sokoloski assisted by Jeremey Leipsic and Ty Enns. The Caps answered back at the end of the first on the power play with a goal from Dylan Thiessen for his first of the year assisted by Kirklan Lycar and Tyler Kirkup. At the end of 20 minutes of play, the Caps trailed 2-1. Shots on goal were 12-10 for the Capitals.
The Terriers capitalized on the power play at 9:23 in the second period with a goal from Chase Brakel assisted by Takoto Cox and Jeremey Leipsic. The Caps were behind by 2 but not for long with another power play goal from Dylan Thiessen at 10:30 for his second of the game and second of the year assisted by Kirklan Lycar and Mack Hardy. At the end of the second, it was 3-2 Terriers and shots on goal were 9-6 in favour of the Terriers.
The third period the Caps tied things up 3-3 at 8:28 with a power play from Tyler Kirkup assisted by Mack Hardy and Kirklan Lycar. The Terriers would jump ahead by one with an even-strength goal at 11:13 from Riley Thiessen assisted by Ty Enns. The Caps answered back to tie the game 4-4 with a power play goal at 13:31 from Captain Mack Hardy assisted by Dylan Thiessen and Ben Dalke. That wouldn’t be all for the Capitals as they kept rolling and finding the back of the net to put the Terriers away. Ben Dalke found his first of the game on the power play at 14:44 assisted by Tyler Kirkup and Kirklan Lycar to take the lead 5-4. Ben Dalke found the back of the net one more time for his second of the game and give the Caps a 6-4 lead assisted by Tyler Kirkup and Kirklan Lycar. The Caps finished off the game with an empty-net goal from Kirklan Lycar for his sixth point of the game and a 7-4 victory!
The Caps earned two of the three stars of the game with Tyler Kirkup picking up the second star of the game with a 4-point night and Kirklan Lycar picking up the first star of the game with a 6-point night!
Multi-point night:
Dylan Thiessen – 3 points (2G, 1A)
Ben Dalke – 3 points (2G, 1A)
Mack Hardy- 3 points (1G, 2A)
Tyler Kirkup – 4 points (1G, 3A)
Kirklan Lycar – 6 points ( 1G, 5A)
Caps next action is at home Monday, Jan 2 against the Portage Terriers for a rematch! Puck drop is at 7:30pm.