Four goals in the first period helped propel the Oil Caps to a 7-1 win over the Selkirk Steelers on Saturday night at Tundra Oil and Gas Place.
“We played with lots of speed and we were finishing checks up ice,” said Oil Caps forward Josh Belcher. “We really got into their end and went to work.”
Rylee Zimmer opened the scoring at the 7:27 mark of the opening frame with his 19th of the season on the power play before Belcher’s third of the year less than a minute later. The Oil Caps didn’t stop there as Jeran Knorr’s 21st at 11:19 and Ben Dalke’s 15th of the campaign at 15:40 with the man advantage made it 4-0 after 20 minutes.
After a scoreless second, the Oil Caps made it 5-0 as Dylan Thiessen picked up his 18th of the year just 2:09 into the final frame. The Steelers finally got on the board a bit later as Ryan Gardiner’s power play marker made it 5-1.
Knorr’s second of the night at 8:26 followed by Jack Einarson’s third of the season at 13:24 rounded out the scoring.
“I thought pucks were bouncing our way tonight,” said Knorr. “I felt we were forechecking really hard tonight and finishing checks and it was creating opportunities for us.”
Knorr says tonight’s game had a different feel compared to last Tuesday’s game in Selkirk that saw Virden fall 6-3.
“I feel like the last game against them we had a slow start and it didn’t work out too well for us. We had four goals in the first and that really made the difference.”
Riley McVeigh made 20 saves to pick up the win in net, while Hayden Dola and Zachary Bennet combined to make 43 stops in the loss for Selkirk.
Extra Notes:
-Tonight’s Twin Valley Co-op three stars were as follows: Ben Dalke was No. 1 star with a goal and two assists, Jeran Knorr was second star with two goals, while Kirklan Lycar’s two assists had him as star No. 3.
-The Redfern Farm Services hardest working player was No. 5 Garrett Sambrook.
-The Oil Caps outshot Selkirk rather convincingly: 50-21 in total.
-The Oil Caps next game: Tuesday night in Wayway against the Wolverines. Game time: 7:30 p.m.