(Photo: Oil Barons forward Landon Welykholowa (25 white) tries to slide the puck past Pontiacs goaltender Josh Williams on September 29th, 2015. Taylor Pope / REPORTER)
Post-game interview with Tom Keca is below.
Keca post-game interview Sep. 29, 2015 by Bradley Karp on Mixcloud
Chalk it up to bad luck, chalk it up to inexperience but either way you’re chalking up another one in the ‘loss’ column as the Oil Barons fell 4-2 to Bonnyville at the Casman Centre Tuesday night.
The MOB hit at least three posts during the game and had countless other opportunities to pull ahead.
“My dad told me that close counts in horseshoes and hand grenades and that’s about it. Maybe we’re trying to set a record for how many times we can shoot ourselves in the foot,” said MOB Head Coach Tom Keca. “I thought for the most part we played a pretty sound game, we kept them to the outside, I think they had one scoring chance in the second period.”
Again the Oil Barons were outshot, this time 33-25 by the Pontiacs, Eric Szudor was his usual sharp self, allowing three goals, the ‘Yaks fourth marker was an empty netter by Steen Pasichnuk.
The Pontiacs jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the dying moments of the first period, the Oil Barons have had a hard time keeping the puck out of their mesh in the last five minutes of play before the frame comes to a close.
“In the last minute of a period, we have a responsible centreman wins a clean draw to a defenceman and we lose the puck, same thing on the third goal as well we win the faceoff defenceman gets it and we just keep telling our guys to move the puck […] but we don’t do it,” said Keca on the ROCK 97.9 post-game show.
Bobby McMann scored the opening goal, Keyler Hehn scored early in the second to give the Pontiacs a 2-1 lead, then it was Chandler Klein with the game winner with just 2:49 seconds left in the third period.
Ben Sharf scored both Oil Barons goals, the second was as pretty as they come busting down the right wing going around the defenceman and then sliding the puck between the legs of Josh Williams with a great deke.
“We just keep shooting ourselves in the foot, as a coaching staff I get it, we’re preaching patience but it’s time maybe that we sat there and look at the personnel we have here and we just gotta make some changes. “
It’s another heartbreaking loss for a team still searching for its first win of the season. The Oil Barons were in the game all night until just under five minutes to play, it’s a recurring scenario that has had the playing with fragility in the third period.
“The cliché is the fact that sometimes you play not to lose rather than to win and I think when we tied it up there two to two everybody looked up at the clock and said ‘okay let’s hold ‘em here let’s just hold’em and get the point’,” said Keca.”
The Oil Barons hit the road Thursday night ahead of the AJHL Showcase in Camrose this weekend. The MOB will take on the Calgary Canucks on Friday and the Kodiaks Saturday.
