The season is over for the Big Valley Oil Kings after a narrow 1-0 loss to the Tofield Satellites at home on Saturday, Feb. 28.
The Oil Kings went into game six of the best-of-seven series needing a win, down 3-2. The series had been, up until that point, a back-and forth battle for the Oil Kings, with a win, a loss, a win and a loss. Tofield broke that chain by winning its first home game of the playoffs on Friday, Feb. 27.
It was a close battle that Friday, with Tofield leading the charge in the 8-6 game. Big Valley scored once in the first, a shot off the stick of Brendan Lamb scooting past the Satellites’ netminder, Tanner Schalin.
The final day of February, Saturday the 28th, saw the puck drop at 7:30 p.m. Tofield scored with less than six minutes remaining in the first period, the only goal of the game.
Despite frantic attempts by both teams to get the puck past the netminders, the combined skills of Schalin for the Satellites and Chance Clark for the Oil Kings, plus the hard-playing defence, kept the rest of the game scoreless.
The game was one of the cleaner of the series, with both teams minding their manners and working hard to keep out of the penalty box, resulting in a total of 12 penalty minutes for the entire game, split evenly between both teams.
In the 2014-15 season, the Oil Kings’ Chance Abbot was named Rookie of the Year, the second year in a row that the Oil Kings have secured that prize. Kinnunen won last year’s Rookie of the year, and goalie Chance Clark was part of the Oil Kings duo that won goalie of the year last season.