The Virden Oil Kings are on their way to the second round of the Tiger Hills Hockey League playoffs.
On Thursday night, former Virden Oil Capital Colin Cook scored the game winner in overtime to lift the visitors to a 7-6 victory over the Hartney Blues. That completed a sweep of the best-of-three series following Monday’s 6-2 win. The Oil Kings now wait to see who they will face in the next round.
Meanwhile, the Miniota-Elkhorn C-Hawks are looking to complete a sweep of their opening series on the road Friday night. They downed the Souris Elks, 8-3 in the opening game on Tuesday.
Oil Kings vs Blues
The Oil Kings entered the playoffs as the third seed in the THHL Western Division after a 14-3-1-0. The Blues were the sixth seed with a 7-10-1-0.
After the Oil Kings and Blues concluded the THHL regular season battling each other on Saturday – with Virden prevailing 7-6 on an Elisha Bambridge overtime goal – they were back at it for game one on Monday. Virden led 1-0 and 5-1 at the intermissions. Ty Lewis scored a hattrick and recorded five points. Devon LeBlanc had Virden’s first two goals and finished with four points. His brother, Derek LeBlanc, also had four points, including a goal. Tristan Rinn made 31 saves for Virden.
“In game one our power play was clicking and was key,” Virden coach Ryan Mathieson said. “Our top line was extremely productive, but it was a team effort with some great shifts from all lines. We also needed some big save from Tristan who came to play. We gave up more chances than we'd like but with the goaltending we got we seemed to carry the momentum for most of the game.”
Heading into game two, Mathieson said:
“We will need to stay disciplined while keep our intensity high. Elimination games are always the hardest to win and Hartney will be a tough barn to close it out in. We will need a full team effort to get past a strong Hartney team.”
He was not wrong. On Thursday, the Souris arena was glowing red in the first period with seven goals scored and Virden holding a 4-3 lead at the first intermission. Colin Cook, Tanner Hepp, Devon LeBlanc, and Brennan Williams scored for Virden.
Things slowed down in the second session. Williams’ second goal of the night was the lone marker of the period as Virden extended its lead to 5-3.
In the third period, Hartney outscored Virden 3-1. Devon LeBlanc scored for Virden, but a Jordan Foote goal forced overtime. Cook’s OT goal moved Virden onto round two of the playoffs. Rinn made 30 saves.
In the regular season, Devon LeBlanc paced the Oil Kings with 23 goals, 19 assists, and 42 points in 13 games. In net, Kyran Gerring had a 7-1-1-0 record while Rinn was 7-1-0-0.
“This season I’ve been impressed with our depth,” Mathieson said. “We have some high-end talent that was able to dominate at times. In senior hockey you don’t always have everyone available and when we were in those games our depth really showed.”
C-Hawks vs Elks
The C-Hawks opened the playoffs with an 8-3 victory over the Elks. On the road, Souris jumped out to a 2-1 first period lead. Curtis Oliver scored for Miniota-Elkhorn.
In the second period, the C-Hawks were flying. They scored five unanswered goals. Doing the honours were Taylor Sanheim, Oliver, Josh Martin, Brad Bowles and Brad Cole.
In the third frame, Sanheim and Dustin Fisher scored for the C-Hawks, while Souris got one goal.
Jason Bowles recorded four assists. Cory Gardham made 17 saves for Miniota-Elkhorn.
The C-Hawks finished on top of the THHL Western Division with a league-best 17-1-0-0 record. The Souris Elks (5-13-0-0 are the division’s eighth seed.
“Playoff season is always a great time of year that everyone looks forward to,” C-Hawks head coach Garth Mitchell said. “The team is definitely looking forward to getting started.”
If needed, game three will be in Elkhorn on Sunday.
After his team topped the THHL standings in its first season after moving from the North Central Hockey League, Mitchell said going into the playoffs, “I think our focus will be more of the same for our team. We want to play the game the right way and keep up strong work habits. We want to outwork our opponents and put lots of forecheck pressure on to generate lots of scoring opportunities.”
In the regular season, Miniota-Elkhorn’s Shawn Bowles topped the THHL with 28 goals and 57 points. He was second in assists with 29. Gardham was second in the league in wins with a 10-0-0-0 record.
