It was the Easton Hesse show at CN Centre on Monday night as he made 39 saves giving the Leduc Oil Kings a 4-1 win over the Cariboo Cougars during Day 1 of the Telus Cup.
Despite a dominant start from the host Cougars, it was the Oil Kings that scored first as Colby Wolter tucked home a dribbler past Cougars goalie Marcus Allen for a 1-0 lead.
Brendan Morrow doubled the advantage for Leduc putting home a Dillon Hamaliuk feed to go up a pair.
In the second, Cariboo continued to carry the play with a wide edge in physical play and scoring changes and finally solved Hesse courtesy of Trey Thomas who completed a three-way scoring play from Jeremy Gervais and Daine Dubois making it 2-1 after 40 minutes.
The major-midget Cats continued to throw the kitchen sink at Hesse but remained unconscious in the Leduc net turning away countless opportunities.
Breydon Berthold gave the Oil Kings some much-needed insurance ripping home a wrist shot going stickside on Allen regaining the two-goal edge.
Hamaliuk also potted an empty netter for Leduc to give them a 1-0 record during the round robin.
And that’s the final!!! 4-1 Oil Kings!
— LeducMAAAOil (@LeducMAAAOil) April 25, 2017
MYPGNOW caught up with Hesse after the game who says it’s to the get opener behind him. “Coming into this first game I didn’t know what to expect but I saw a lot of energy and it was good.”
In theory, Leduc seems to be the Cinderella story of the tournament posting an unimpressive 14-15-5 record during the Alberta Midget AAA regular season finishing behind eight other teams in points while only scoring 93 goals in the process.
The Oil Kings pulled off back to back upsets of the Sherwood Ennis Park Kings and the Foothills CFR Chemical Bisons in the final two rounds of the playoffs to capture the provincial crown and a tournament berth in the process.
Hesse posted a 9-2 record followed by a 1.86 GAA during the run and explains what clicked down the stretch.
“Our team is definitely something special especially going through adversity and just really connecting with eachother making sure everyone is doing their best and not bringing anybody down.”
Cougars Head Coach and GM Trevor Sprague says his team deserved a better fate. “It could have been a 6-2 game for us after the second period but after the timeout in the third we didn’t come back the way we needed too and got caught on the wrong side of the puck on that third goal.”
Sprague adds despite the solid effort, they still need to clean some things up defensively. “We have to be a little more consistent in getting back and at times got on the wrong side of the puck. On the second goal we were a little bit lazy just standing around looking at their nice blue jerseys that they have and I thought it was kind of a weird that we would do that.”
The game lacked no shortage of emotion either even though both teams were coming off a four-week layoff. “Between Alberta and BC we’re not really friends so you’ll see a little bit of beaking and whining on the ice,” says Sprague.
Leduc was crowned with Pacific Regional banner at the end of the game.
Cariboo drops to 0-1 and will play the 0-1 Regina Pat Canadians Tuesday night at 7:30 pm from CN Centre.
In earlier action on Monday, the Cape Breton West Islanders edged the Blizzard du Seminaries Saint Francois 2-1 while the Mississauga Rebels outscored the Regina Pat Canadians 5-2.
The Rebels take on the Blizzard at noon on Tuesday.
Leduc will attempt consecutive wins at 4 o’clock against Cape Breton.