The Edmonton Oil Kings kicked off the new year with a bang, cruising to a 5-1 victory over the struggling Red Deer Rebels on New Year’s Day at Rogers Place to extend their winning streak to four games. Austin Zemlak led the charge with a pair of power-play goals—his first coming just over two minutes into the game and the second early in the middle frame—while Gavin Hodnett buried a setup from Lukas Sawchyn late in the first to make it 2-0 after one period. Edmonton kept pouring it on in the second, as Landon Hanson roofed a backhand on a partial breakaway and Cage Smith tapped in another Sawchyn pass at the back door to build a commanding 5-0 lead. Owen Shadrick spoiled the shutout with a third-period rebound goal for Red Deer, but that was all the Rebels could muster against Parker Snell, who stopped 16 shots. The Oil Kings went 2-for-3 on the power play and a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill. Meanwhile, the loss stretched Red Deer’s skid to nine straight, a tough stretch made harder by missing several key players—including defenceman Matus Lisy and forward Samuel Drancak at the World Juniors, plus Matthew Gard, Grayden Peterson, Matej Mikes, and Aleksey Chichkin—though Kohen Lodge returned from an upper-body injury and the team added defenceman Noah Chadi on a tryout from Grande Prairie.
20 year old Austin Zemlak who recently joined the team from Arizona State opened up the scoring or the Oil Kings at 2:20 of the first period. The assist on the goal went to Andrew O’Neill.–Edmonton got on the board early as Austin Zemlak struck just 2:20 into the opening frame.
Gavin Hodnett made it a 2-0 game at 13:37 of the first period. Assists on the goal went to Lukas Sawchyn and Miroslav Holinka.
Shots on goal in the first period were 10-6 for the Oil Kings
Fort McMurray, Alberta native Austin Zemlak scored his second goal of the game for the Oil Kings at 5:30 of the second period on the Power Play. The assists on the goal went to Kayden Stroeder and Landon Hanson.
Landon Hanson makes it a 4-0 game for the Oil Kings at 7:52 of the second period with his 13th of the season. Unassisted.
Cage Smith makes it 5-0 at 16:56 of the second period on a goal assisted by Lukas Sawchyn.
Shots on goal in the second period were 11-3 for the Oil Kings
Owen Shadrick broke the shutout with a goal at 14:54 of the third period assisted by Kohen Lodge.
Shots on goal in the third period were 8-3 for the Rebels. The Oil Kings outshot the Rebels in the game 24-17
Parker Snell made 16 saves on the 17 shots that he faced for the win for the Oil Kings. For the Rebels Matthew Kondro stopped 19 of the 24 shots that he faced.
Three Stars of the game were 1) Austin Zemlak 2) Landon Hanson 3) Lukas Sawchyn
Attendance in Edmonton was 8834
Rebels next game is Saturday January 3rd against the Seattle Thunderbirds in Red Deer
