The Oil Caps responded in a big way after last night’s loss defeating the Swan Valley Stampeders by a score of 6-3 at Tundra Oil and Gas Place on Saturday.
After Shane Roulette opened the scoring for Swan Valley with his 12th of the year at the 6:03 mark of the opening frame, the Oil Caps responded with two tallies of their own as Justin Lee’s sixth goal of the season on the power play at 8:46 followed by Graeme Hore’s 13th of the campaign at 19:29 had Virden up 2-1 after 20 minutes.
The middle frame saw Landyn Cochrane score his first of the night at the 5:47 mark making it 3-1 before Swan Valley’s Quintin Sudom picked up his seventh of the year on the power play at 10:13 to cut Virden’s lead in half.
However, a little over four minutes later (14:49 mark), Tyler Kirkup would net his 27th of the season to restore the Oil Caps two-goal cushion.
The third period got off on the right foot for Virden as Cochrane would net his second goal of the night and his ninth of the year at the 1:35 mark before Kirkup picked up his 28th of the season at 11:34. Noah Basarab’s 15th goal of the year for Swan Valley rounded out the scoring just 21 seconds later.
Riley McVeigh picked up his 19th win of the season, making 32 saves in the process, helping Virden improve to 29-15-2-0 on the season. Meanwhile, Swan Valley netminder Brett Evans stopped 38 of 44 shots directed his way in the loss.
“We went to the net hard and finished all our chances and we got a win so can’t complain,” said Oil Caps forward Kyle Salaway, who had an assist tonight in the win.
Salaway says the biggest difference in tonight’s effort compared to last night’s game that saw the Oil Caps fall 3-2 in Swan Valley was that his team “kept it simple.”
“Last night we struggled a little bit. I think we just got pucks to the net and bodies to the net and we kind of just found those loose pucks.”
Extra Notes:
- The Oil Caps ended up outshooting Swan Valley 44-35 on the night.
- Three stars tonight were all Oil Caps. Landyn Cochrane was the first star (two goals and an assist), Tyler Kirkup was the second star (two goals and an assist), while Kirklan Lycar was the third star (three assists).
- The Oil Caps sit third in the standings with 60 points and are just three points behind the Portage Terriers for second place.
- The Oil Caps play again tomorrow night. They host the Neepawa Natives. Game time: 7 p.m.