The Oil Capitals finished a tough stretch Friday night at home, losing their second home game in two nights. While the Oil Capitals lost 4-2 on the scoresheet, the final result wasn’t indicative of how the team played. The Oil Capitals carried the game at times throughout the night, outshooting the Wolverines 39 to 27 for the game.
Oil Capitals captain, Ben Dalke, scored his 22nd of the year to open the scoring in the 1st. Wayway followed up within a minute, when Anthony Bilka scored his 8th of the season, tying the game up at 1 going into the 1stintermission. Nick Doyle, was the lone goal scorer in the 2nd, when he notched his 3rd of the season late at the 18:55 mark putting the Wolverines up 2-1 going into the 3rd period.
Jake Bestul extended Wayway’s lead in the 3rd, at the mid period mark, notching his 8th of the year extending the lead to 3-1. Virden’s Jayden Wojciechowski, would cut the deficit in half with just over a minute to go, scoring his 5th of the season, assisted by team point leader, Kolten Kanaski. That was as close as Virden could get it, as Jake Bestul potted his 2nd of the game, putting a stamp on a 4-2 win for the Wolverines.
Dalton Dosch was solid in defeat, stopping 23 of 26. One of the MJHL’s league top goalie nominee, Isaac Labelle, was solid in the victory stopping 37 of 39 shots for the victory.
Troy Leslie, Coach and GM stated, “We faced a good goalie tonight. We had lots of shots, but end of the day we needed to burry one more to get things to overtime. We need to be more mentally prepared to play at the start of games right now.” Captain, Ben Dalke added, “We have to be more mentally prepared to play at the start of games. We have a good week between games now, so we need to get refocused.”
Oil Caps Tid Bits: Brock Shwaluk and Logan Rands, are day to day. Dylan Halliday, also did not dress. Kolten Kanaski is currently 4th in the league in scoring, with 62 points. Captain, Ben Dalke, sits 8th with 55 points.