For Ethan Peters and the Edmonton Oil Kings, the news was nothing plenty positive, as they rolled to a 7-1 victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Meanwhile, the Medicine Hat Tigers scored three goals in the final 11 minutes of regulation and then scored the winner in overtime to take a 5-4 victory over Jaxsen Wiebe and the Red Deer Rebels.
All four teams are back in action on Saturday night for a rematch in their home-and-home sets.
Oil Kings 7, Hurricanes 1
Peters -- a rookie with the Oil Kings who signed with the club last month -- didn’t figure into the scoring and had a single shot on goal, but with the way things went for Edmonton on the night, that wasn’t a concern.
Dylan Guenther had two goals and two assists before the game was 30 minutes old and Edmonton would build a 4-1 lead through two periods before cruising to the commanding win.
Jake Neighbours and Kaid Oliver each had a goal and two assists, while Josh Williams, Carson Latimer and Tyler Horstmann had single markers.
Noah Boyko scored the lone goal for Lethbridge.
Sebastian Cossa turned aside 26 shots to earn the win, Carl Tetachuk faced 47 shots in the loss.
Medicine Hat 5, Red Deer 4 (OT)
Wiebe and the Rebels found themselves with a comfortable 4-1 lead heading into the final 11 minutes of the game, but Medicine Hat’s Corson Howpo decided an opening night loss wasn’t going to happen to the Tigers.
Howpo would score twice in the remaining time and then add the game winner in OT to give Medicine Hat their surprise win.
It wasn’t without its additional dramatics, either -- Hopwo’s second of the game came with 1:58 left and pulled the Tigers within one before Lukas Svejkosky scored with 41 seconds to play to send things into OT.
Wiebe finished the game with three shots for the Rebels and was 0-for-1 in the faceoff circle.
Jayden Grubbe, Ethan Rowland, Kyle Masters and Chris Douglas scored for Red Deer; Nick McCarry had the other goal for the Tigers.
Garin Bjorklund made 29 saves for Medicine Hat, Ethan Anders stopped 26 for Red Deer.
