You stumble and then you succeed. It happens all the time in sports and life in general.
Curtis Lazar and the Edmonton Oil Kings are living that slogan as they digest being the first team ousted from the MasterCard Memorial Cup in Shawinigan, Que.
The Western Hockey League champions flew home Friday after being ambushed 6-1 by the Cataractes in a tiebreaker Thursday night.
The Oil Kings were down 2-0 at the first intermission and looking decent. The second period, however, was a train wreck with Shawinigan recording four goals in what seemed like 45 seconds.
“What’s French for the roof fell in? Whatever it is, that’s what happened.” That great piece of prose came from Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun.
Said Lazar, who may transfer his high school studies to Vernon Secondary next week: “We actually played one of our best games last night, but our mistakes ended up in the net.”
Lazar and linemates Henrik Samuelsson and Stephane Legault were regarded as Edmonton’s most reliable line in the tournament. New York Rangers’ fourth-rounder Michael St. Croix (team-record 105-point season) did not score in Quebec. Oilers’ prospect Kristians Pelss ended up on the fourth line by tourney’s end.
Edmonton, in their fifth year as the modern-era Oil Kings, won 67 games and ended up the fourth best team in the 60-team Canadian Hockey League. They return 20 of 25 roster players next year, including second-leading scorer Dylan Wruck, who missed the Memorial Cup with injury.
“It was worse waking up this morning and knowing we were going home,” said Lazar. “We deserved to be there. We worked hard and we just didn’t get it done. We can hold our heads up high. We’re the first Oil Kings team in modern history to win the WHL title and get to the Memorial Cup. We put Edmonton on the Junior hockey map.”
Lazar told me he could barely breathe due to congestion problems, but he was still rewarded with loads of ice time because of his consistent effort.
“Our line did what we could, but we needed everybody going.”
Edmonton captain Mark Pysyk, perhaps summed up the Oil Kings’ 1-3 tournament best.
“It’s tough, it sucks,” Pysyk told The Edmonton Sun. “That we came all this way and didn’t play our best is definitely going to sting for a while. It’s not like we just didn’t play our best, other teams were good, and they forced us to do things we weren’t used to.
Lazar, who turned 17 in February and had a 20-goal rookie season, roomed with St. Albert’s Travis Ewanyk in Quebec. Reaching the Memorial Cup is a splendid way to start his Major Junior hockey career, and the memories will sweeten in time.
“I enjoyed the whole experience. Hanging out with the guys was great and playing against some of the best teams the CHL has to offer was a challenge. We have a young team (17.5 years average) and this experience will go a long ways in helping us get better. We’ll be good again next year.”
Lazar will take a few weeks to recover from an 86-game season and hopefully get a call to try out for Canada’s Under 18 team. That group, to be coached by Todd Gill of the OHL Kingston Frontenacs, will play in the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, Aug. 8-13, in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Canada is a four-time defending champion and has won gold seven of the last nine times. The roster features numerous potential 2012 entry draft first-round picks, and should have a formidable blueline with the likes of Griffin Reinhart (Oil Kings), Slater Koekkoek (Peterborough Petes) Matt Dumba (Red Deer Rebels) and Morgan Rielly (Moose Jaw Warriors).
In the Geez, I’m Getting Old Department…I covered the 1983 Memorial Cup in Portland, won by the stacked Winterhawks, who had the likes of Cam Neely, Ray Ferraro, Ken Yaremchuk, Randy Heath and Jim Playfair, and were somehow allowed to use Mike Vernon of the Calgary Wranglers in net.
Anyways, Derek Laxdal was a rookie forward with Portland and Gerard Gallant was a force up front with 234-point man Pat Lafontaine for the Verdun Juniors.
Laxdal coaches the Oil Kings and Gallant is coach of the defending Memorial Cup champion Saint John Sea Dogs.
