PREVIEW: Oil Kings Close Out Homestand Against Blades
Edmonton, Alta. – The Edmonton Oil Kings close out a three-game homestand tonight at Rogers Place before embarking on a nine-game road trip.
Tonight, the Saskatoon Blades are in town and the Oil Kings are looking to continue their solid homestand. Edmonton is coming off a 5-4 thrilling win over the Vancouver Giants, their second win in a row on this home stand. Meanwhile, the Blades are coming into tonight having won three straight and are 7-1-1-0 to start the year.
The Oil Kings line of Gracyn and Lukas Sawchyn, along with Adam Jecho will look to continue building off a solid pair of Thanksgiving games where they combined for nine points (3G, 6A). Blake Fiddler will also look to stay hot as he has points in three straight games (2G, 1A).
On the Saskatoon side, Ben Riche has found a new home with the Blades after being traded from Victoria in the offseason, currently leading the team in scoring with 13 points (6G, 7A).
Tonight will also mark another night for the Oil Kings facing a dangerous powerplay unit as the Blades powerplay ranks 3rd in the WHL at 27.6%, but the Oil Kings penalty kill has been just as excellent as it is working at an 87% clip, tops in the WHL.
It’s the first of four meetings between the Blades and Oil Kings, as last season, Edmonton dropped all four meetings, and they’ll look start this season series off right.
Oil Kings Scoring Leaders (GP, G-A-Pts):
- Gavin Hodnett (7, 3-5-8)
- Blake Fiddler (7, 2-3-5)
- Gracyn Sawchyn (4, 1-4-5)
- Adam Jecho (4, 1-4-5)
- Miroslav Holinka (5, 3-1-4)
- Lukas Sawchyn (5, 2-2-4)
Oil Kings Milestone Watch:
- D Rhys Pederson is 6 games away from 100 in the WHL.
- F Cole Miller is 6 games away from 200 in the WHL.
- F Landon Hanson is 10 games away from 100 in the WHL
Blades Scoring Leaders (GP, G-A-Pts):
- Ben Riche (9,6-7-13)
- Rown Calvert (9, 7-4-11)
- Cooper Williams (9, 4-6-10)
- Tyler Parr (7, 2-8-10)
- Ben Saunderson (9, 1-9-10)
2024-25 Schedule vs. Saskatoon Blades
Thursday, October 17 @ Edmonton
Friday, November 15 @ Saskatoon
Wednesday, January 8 @ Edmonton
Sunday, March 2 @ Saskatoon
