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The Oil Kings lost 4-2 to the Hamilton Bulldogs in the final round for each team at the Harbor Station Arena on Friday, eliminating them from the tournament.
Marco Constantini (33) of the Hamilton Bulldogs makes a save against Josh Williams (14) of the Edmonton Oil Kings during the second period of Round 5 of the 2022 Memorial Cup between the Hamilton Bulldogs against the Edmonton Oil Kings on June 24, 2022, at station in St. John, NB. Photo by Vincent Etie / CHL
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SAINT JOHN, NB – A championship season ended in a disastrous end for the Edmonton Oil Kings at the 2022 Memorial Cup.
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The Oil Kings lost 4-2 to the Hamilton Bulldogs in the final round for each team at the Harbor Station Arena on Friday, eliminating them from the tournament.
The Bulldogs advance to the semifinals on Monday against host Saint John Sea Dogs or QMJHL champion Shawinigan Cataractes, who play Saturday to determine first place.
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Mason McTavish scored a pair of goals while Avery Hayes and Ryan Winterton had the rest for the Bulldogs, who lost their first two games of the tournament but advanced with the win. Marco Constantini made 40 saves.
“It was a serious effort,” said Bulldogs head coach Jay McKee. “Obviously we have fantastic goalkeeping, it was one of the best games I’ve seen Kozi play and I’ve seen him play a lot of games. We have some guys who are shaken who play through things, like a lot of teams here, and I was just impressed with the effort; the boys left everything there. ”
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Jalen Luypen and Carter Souch scored a goal for Oil Kings, who only needed a draw in the regulations to move forward with the new points system announced by CHL on the day of the tournament. Sebastian Kosa made 32 saves.
“I thought it was actually our best match of the tournament,” said Oil Kings head coach Brad Lauer. “I thought we were a lot more involved and we had more goals in our game. We created a lot of opportunities and unfortunately we didn’t finish many of them. “
The Bulldogs had to win the match in the regulations to win all three points for the victory and move to third place in the standings before Oil Kings. Teams receive only two points for losing overtime, while the loser receives one.
Hamilton opened the scoring in nine minutes after the first period. Hayes took a pass from Logan Morrison from the side of the net and managed to score the puck through Kosa to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead.
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Hamilton increased their lead to 2-0 by less than four minutes in the period with another goal in the game.
Defender Nathan Staios managed to jump and keep the puck in the area. He slid him to McTavish, who shot him across the ice at Morrison, and he in turn sent him back across the ice to Winterton for a knock.
“When you play with these guys in power play, it’s so easy to earn points,” Winterton said. “It’s easy to produce because they find it so easy. It was a great goal and I’m grateful to Logan for finding me. “
In the second period, the Oil Kings took the game to the Bulldogs, but failed to reduce the deficit.
The Bulldogs suffered a major blow when Staios was injured after being hit in the back corner by Oil Kings defender Simon Kubicek, who put the puck in the area and then chased it. Kubicek was not awarded a penalty and Styos watched the rest of the match from the stands.
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“Nathan is already playing – like a number of boys – it hurts a bit in some areas,” McKee said. “I mean, if it’s not a blow from behind, I need to know what it is. When I look at the tape, it was directly in the back and it hurts, it hurts.
“He’s obviously not back in the game and I’d definitely like to see another call there.”
Edmonton shot Hamilton 15-9 in the period and the best chance they had was scored by Josh Williams, who swung a shot in front of a centering pass from Carter Souch.
“I thought it was the best match of the tournament for us,” Neighbors said. “It was the closest I’ve seen from all the tournaments since we’ve been here. We just couldn’t finish earlier, but I’m proud of the boys, they never gave up. “
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Luipen scored briefly in two minutes in the third period to reduce the deficit to 2-1. He took a drop pass from Jaxsen Wiebe right in the Bulldogs area and shot from a short side of Constantini.
The deficit of one goal led to the tense last 15 minutes, when Oil Kings focused on the pressure in search of a draw.
Costantini made a great block, though. Brendan Kuny made a great block, though. Then the goalkeeper of the Bulldogs somehow managed to stop Jake Naibers from the side of the net during an attempt with a peak.
McTavish increased the lead to 3-1 with six and a half minutes left, a single shot from the left lap to straighten over Kosa’s shoulder.
“It was good to get this one, we were outplayed in the third,” said McTavish. “We expected them to have a big boost there and it was their season on the line. We were expecting it, but it was good to get it. “
Souch reduced the lead to 3-2 at 2:46 by the end of the game after a strike that found its way through the traffic past Constantini with Hair on the bench for the extra striker.
But it was as close as the Oil Kings could get. McTavish scored an empty goal after the race was over.
“I think we managed to overcome that with the experience we have in close matches,” said McTavish. “Obviously it’s very different here, they are champion teams and they have a lot of skills there and they insisted really hard, but I think our experience helped us.”
Email: dvandiest@postmedia.com
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