What was supposed to be a mismatch turned into a remarkable upset at Rogers Place on Wednesday night.
The heavily favoured Edmonton Oilers rookies were beaten 2-0 by a team made up of players from the NAIT Ooks and MacEwan Griffins.
The MacEwan/NAIT team outplayed the Oilers through the opening minutes and took a 1-0 lead on a goal from Thomas Foster at 8:54 of the first. The Oilers rookies took control after that, but were continually stymied by MacEwan goaltender Marc-Olivier Daigle. Daigle stopped Joe Gambardella from in tight late in the first.
In the second, Gambardella broke in alone shorthanded, but Daigle made the save. Daigle stopped all 19 shots he faced before being replaced by NAIT’s Nathan Park at the midway point of the game.
The Oilers continued to apply pressure in the third. Austin Glover’s shot trickled off the goal post with 10:32 to go, then Gambardella rang a hard wrist shot off the iron with five minutes left. Park did the rest, stopping 19 pucks in the third and 30 overall.
Jarid Hauptman added an insurance goal with 2:31 to go.
The final shots were 49-19 for the Oilers rookies.
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