Ty Edmonds is on a roll.
He knows it. His coaches and teammates know it. And so do the Edmonton Oil Kings.
A day after he proved the difference-maker in ending a 12-game losing streak at the expense of the Oil Kings, the 18-year-old Cougar goalie just about delivered another two points to his team in Saturday's rematch.
But after making 37 stops in a busy night between the pipes at CN Centre, there was nothing Edmonds could do to prevent Cole Benson breaking in alone on a 3-on-2 rush. The pint-sized Oil Kings centre found his own rebound and slid a backhand shot through Edmonds' legs to give the Oil Kings a 2-1 victory, 2:12 into overtime.
"We played strong, we just have to tighten up defensively, but they're a good team and they shoot it from everywhere and they definitely showed tonight why they're the defending champions," said Edmonds.
"I know I'm capable of it the whole time but I had to go out and show everybody myself that I'm capable of playing at this level. Now I just have to keep building off this."
The Cougars connected on their first power-play chance to grab the lead 2:31 into the game. Jari Erricson got flipped onto his side tracking down a loose puck behind the Edmonton net and spotted David Soltes breaking through the slot in perfect sync to accept Erricson's accurate pass and slam it into the net for his 10th of the season.
The Oil Kings tested Edmonds early and often but he made it obvious he brought his A-game to the rink, just like he did in making 34 saves in Friday's 4-2 win over Edmonton. His diving save off Andrew Koep with a minute left in the first period was a thing of beauty and despite have the edge in play for two full periods the Oil Kings still had nothing to show for their efforts.
The second period ended on an ugly note when Cougars defenceman Sam Ruopp took exception to Oil Kings left winger Brett Pollack and his decision to lay a shot on Edmonds a split-second after the buzzer sounded. Ruopp got in the face of Pollack in the corner and gave him a slight head butt and a scrum ensued. Unbeknownst to Ruopp, Brandon Baddock, who had fought Ruopp in the first period, had his stick blade between Ruopp's legs and lifted up his stick with enough force enough force to pick Ruopp up off his feet and he crumpled to the ice in obvious pain. No penalties were handed out on the play.
"He got me in the groin area and it was a dirty play and luckily I came back from it," said Ruopp. "Eddy played amazing both games and it was huge for us to get the first win to give us a bit of confidence coming into tonight's game. Unfortunately we battled hard but it slipped through or fingers."
The Oil Kings tied in 5:58 while the Cougars were shorthanded for the seventh time in the game. Ashton Sautner blasted a low shot from the point that found the corner of the net behind Edmonds.
The Cougars and Oil Kings have a long history of not liking each other and showed that on the ice Saturday. The physical tone of the game was not surprising to Pollack, who leads the Oil Kings in scoring with 48 points in 53 games.
"There was a bit of bad blood from (Friday) and they're a big team and they play an in-your-face style and we don't want to back down and we responded well tonight," said Pollack.
"Edmonds kept them in the game, he comes across quick and he's good at playing the puck and stopping it too and we were getting a little frustrated but didn't let that get to us."
The Cougars have struggled to find consistent goaltending throughout the season and Edmonds, in the 100th and 101st games of his WHL offered up a reminder to the crowd of 3,123 in attendance he deserved to start Monday's game in Kelowna and made that point clear to Cougars head coach Mark Holick in the post-game interviews.
"If he plays like this we're going to ride him the whole way," said Holick. He's put the time and work in and he's a good goalie and at the end of the day he just has to believe that."
The Cougars managed just three shots in the third period, two of which came at the end of the period when they had a two-man power play for a full two minutes. They had the Oil Kings pinned in their own zone the entire time but couldn't muster anything that resembled a good scoring chance against the league's third-best penalty kill. Edmonton shifted defencemen Aaron Irving, Ben Carroll and Blake Orban and forwards Luke Bertolucci, Edgars Kulda and Lane Bauer into the lengthy 5-on-3 penalty kill and forced the Cougars to fumble away their chances. Josh Connolly, the Cougars' offensive-minded 19-year-old defenceman, missed Saturday's game with a concussion and they looked lost without their power-play quarterback.
"Connolly drives our bus on the power play and the reason we got him at the deadline was to improve our power play and he has done that, he settles everybody down," said Holick. "We got a power-play goal but not scoring on the 5-on-3, that stung."
"There were a lot more positives than negatives, considering where we were at the past month. Eddy made a ton of excellent saves and the goals against (four in the two games combined) were good. We had some guys play well who were not our supposed star players. Jari (Erricson) and that whole line (with Kody McDonald and Tyler Mrkonjic), was great all weekend. We gained ground in the playoff race with the point and got some help from everybody else, now it's our job to scratch some points out on the road."
The overtime point, combined with Kamloops and Vancouver losses Saturday, left the Cougars one point behind Kamloops for third place and the final B.C. Division playoff spot. The Cougars went on to play Monday in Kelowna. They'll play seven of their eight games in February on the road due to the Canada Winter Games.
