It was a winning weekend for the Big Valley Oil Kings, who on Friday, Jan. 16 hosted the Daysland Northstars, and on Sunday ventured to Lloydminster to face the Border Kings.
The Oil Kings started off slow on Friday, letting the Northstars score the first goal of the game, but responded less than two minutes later with a goal from Jared Williams to tie the score, and then again six minutes later from Travis Dunstall to pull ahead.
In the second, Daysland evened the score and then pulled ahead, controlling much of the second period. In the last three minutes of the second, Brendan Lamb pulled away to score, tying the game 3-3.
The third period, however, belonged solely to the Oil Kings, with captain Matt Kinnunen scoring less than two minutes into the period on a powerplay.
Luke Boyer followed up almost 10 minutes later with a goal of his own, and then Scott Murphy brought the tally to 6-3. Boyer finished off the game for the Oil Kings with another goal, bringing the final score to 7-3.
On Sunday, the boys from Big Valley headed three hours east to the Alberta-Saskatchewan border town of Lloydminster for another battle of the kings, where they emerged triumphant with a score of 5-2.
Big Valley’s Brandon Nowakowski scored the lone goal of the first period, while Kinnunen scored in the second, sandwiched between two Border Kings goals.
The third period began with a tied score of 2-2, and the Oil Kings looked to break that as fast as they could. Less than three minutes into the third, Chance Abbott scored, bringing the goal to 3-2.
The battle for goals was intense, with Big Valley’s goalie, Chance Clark, blocking 38 shots on the net throughout the game. Both teams played relatively clean, with only five penalties called throughout the game.
In the last 30 seconds of the game, the Border Kings pulled their goalie, Jesse Ehnisz, to give them the man-advantage as they desperately tried to get a goal to tie the game. Instead, Murphy scored for Big Valley, followed by a final-second goal by Kinnunen for a final tally of 5-2.
The Oil Kings next face the Bonnyville Pontiacs on Jan. 24 in Bonnyville, and then again on Jan. 31 in Big Valley. The Pontiacs sit in second place in the Battle River Hockey League standings, sandwiched between the first-place Tofield Satellites and the third place Oil Kings.
The Border Kings, who started strong, have dropped to fourth place, and the Northstars – who will be hosting the Senior AA provincials later this year – sit in last.