After a sluggish start in the 1st period, the home town Oil Capitals couldn’t recover in their defeat to the Winnipeg Blues Thursday night at the Tundra Oil and Gas Place by a score of 4-2. In the 1st, Sulivan Shortreed and Michael Ladyman scored their 16th and 2nd on the campaign respectively for the Blues to take them into the 1st intermission up 2-0. The Blues outshot Virden 17 to 13 in the opening frame.
The 2nd saw the Blues take the lead 4-0 as Jason Szun with his 14th and Mikol Sartor with his 6th of the season potted markers for the visiting squad. Near the end of the 2nd, 18-year old Josh Belcher, got the Oil Capitals on the board, scoring his 11th of the season making the score 4-1 for the Blues heading into the 2nd intermission. The Oil Capitals began to get more pressure on the Blues goalie, Jeremy Link, firing 15 shots his direction in the 2nd period.
In the 3rd, the Oil Capitals closed the gap to 4-2 when stand out 2nd year vet, Jack Einarson got his 17th of the year for the Oil Capitals. That was as close as the Oil Capitals would get. They made a valent effort to get back into late in the 3rd, but couldn’t beat Link to close the gap in getting the equalizer. The Oil Capital’s Dalton Dosch was solid in the loss stopping 30 of 34 shot his way, meanwhile Blue’s 20-year old Jeremy Link was strong in making 38 saves in the victory.
“The team had a slow start in the 1st, and we couldn’t fight through to get things back netted up. We played much better in the 2nd and 3rd and had more hits which also changed the tide of the game, but was just little too late,” added Head Coach/GM Troy Leslie. “We did alright, but beginning we were just too flat. We came together more and played with more pace as game went on. Tomorrow we will be ready to play against WayWay,” added 18-year old veteran, Jack Einarson.
Oil Capitals Tid Bits: Brock Shwaluk, and Logan Rands sat out due to UBI. They are both day to day. Dylan Halliday sat with flu symptons. The Oil Capitals played with 13 forwards and 5 Defencemen on the evening.
Next up for the Caps: The Oil Caps face off against the Waywayseecappo Wolverines tonight at 7:30pm at the Tundra Oil and Gas Place!