The Virden Oil Capitals came away with an impressive performance against the visiting Dauphin Kings on Friday night in the club’s regular season home opener.
The junior A club scored four goals in the first and never looked back, defeating the Kings 10-3 in front of more than 1,000 fans at Tundra Oil and Gas Place.
“What I liked about our game was that we got pucks to the net early and it paid off for us,” said Oil Caps head coach and GM Troy Leslie.
Ben Dalke had a great night with three goals and an assist for the home team in the win. He was later named the first star.
“When you see Ben in and around the net scoring goals like that, you know he’s going to have a good night because he’s a good shooter,” Leslie said. “But when he goes to those hard areas to make things happen, that’s when he has a really good night.”
“My line of Thiessen and Kirkup, we were rolling,” Dalke said. “We were really cycling pretty good on their D. It’s just a confidence thing and an experience thing. We just play really well together.”
Jeran Knorr and Tyler Kirkup each had two goals apiece, while Morgan Magwood, Dylan Thiessen and Kolton Kanaski netted the other tallies for Virden.
“It seemed like the offence and defence were both going tonight and McVeigh was back there really keeping us in it too,” Kanaski said.
Leslie says there were moments his club lost focus, but it didn’t take long to get it back.
“That’s the mark of some good leadership and some good people in the room.”
Riley McVeigh picked up the win in net, stopping 36 of 39 shots directed his way.
The Oil Caps travel to Dauphin to complete a home-and-home set to start the season tomorrow night before they travel to Wayway to take on the Wolverines on Tuesday. The club’s next home action is Thursday night when Virden hosts the Winnipeg Blues.