Skip to content

Oil Capitals battle division leading Kings

The Virden Oil Capitals are looking to dethrone the royalty of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s West Division this weekend.
oil_capitalsSMALL-1 (1)

The squad faces the Dauphin Kings on the road Friday and hosts the division leaders on Saturday. Entering this week, the Oil Caps sat fourth in the West with a 4-5-1-0 record.  The Kings topped the division. They and the Waywayseecappo Wolverines each had 8-2-0-0 records – tied for third best in the league. The Kings were ranked 14th nationally in this week’s Canadian Junior Hockey League Top 20 Rankings.

Last weekend, royalty ruled with the Kings winning the opening two games of the teams’ four-game series. Dauphin won 4-3 in Virden Friday and 4-2 on the road the next night.

“I thought we played a very good game on Friday and just couldn’t seem to find the back of the net,” Virden head coach Tyson Ramsey said. “Saturday was a little inconsistent. We were very good for parts and then not so sharp in other parts of our game.” 

A highlight of the weekend for the Oil Caps was the return of defenceman Trevor Hunt of Hartney. He had been out for almost a month due to an injury sustained in the first game of the regular season.

Before the Oil Capitals tangled with the Kings last week, they swapped goaltender Ryley Gross to the Dryden (Ont.) Ice Dogs of the Superior International Junior Hockey League. The Hazenmore, Sask. product was in his second year with the team. The squad is now down to a pair of 18-year-old netminders: Virden’s own Eric Reid and Ethan Kadatz of St. Albert, Alta.

Last Friday the Oil Capitals outshot the Kings, 50-33. The contest was knotted at 3-3 heading into the final frame. Former Yellowhead Chiefs U18 AAA player Parker Malchuk, the Kings captain, scored the winning goal.

Elkhorn product Parker Johnson, Malchuk’s ex-Chiefs teammate, scored twice in the first period. That staked Virden to a 2-1 lead at the first intermission. Mathew Rathbone had Dauphin’s goal.    In the second, Brayden Dube and Rathbone scored to put the Kings up 3-2 but Dylan Halliday lit the lamp on the powerplay to tie things up before the period’s end. Kadatz made 29 saves, while Dauphin’s Carson Cherepak turned away 47 shots.

Jack Oleksiuk had three assists for Virden. In the second frame, Rathbone and Oil Cap Bray Rookes of Manson dropped the gloves. Oleksiuk was named the Gardewine Hardest Worker of the Game. Malchuk, Johnson and Dauphin’s Colby Jaquet were three stars. The announced attendance at the Tundra Oil & Gas Place was 748. The Mazergroup Seventh Man was Gavin Studer.

On Saturday in Dauphin, Virden once again jumped out to a 2-1 first period lead. After the Kings’ Jaquet opened the scoring, Tyler Thoendel and Halliday lit the lamp to put the Oil Caps on top. The Kings held the visitors off the scoreboard the rest of the way. For Dauphin,  Ben Hackl scored in the second period while Kaden Bryant and Dube had third period goals.  

Reid had 24 saves. Cherepak made 23. Branden Huminuk recorded two assists for Virden. Jaquet, Bryant and Oil Caps rookie David Bielik were the three stars.

Oil Caps forward Braden Fischer recorded two points on the weekend. Entering this week, he was third in the league in scoring with 19 points and tied for third in goals with nine. Halliday is second on the Oil Caps in points (10) and goals (seven). Carson Buydens and Oleksiuk each had nine points for the third and fourth positions on the team in scoring. Huminuk rounded out the top five with eight points. Captain Logan Rands was the top Virden blue line scorer with seven points.

 

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks