"They scored pretty early if I'm not mistaken," recalled Jones, who also picked up a helper on Sunday. "I remember kind of dominating the game and getting a lot of scoring chances but we couldn't score. Then they switched goalies and we were like, 'OK, we got the hot guy out.'"
Jones was referring to NAIT-MacEwan All-Stars goaltenders Marc-Olivier Daigle and Nathan Park, who both manned the twine for the collegiate squad. Daigle started in between the pipes then Park finished the game.
"He (Park) came in and was even better," Jones said, noting the visiting team as a whole had a strong outing. "They played hard. They were blocking shots and played a good systems game."
Jones attributes last year's loss to the Oilers not playing cohesively.
"I think last year we were trying to beat guys 1-on-1 a lot," he added. "Our forwards and our D were doing too much."
BRAGGING RIGHTS
The skaters who weren't part of the last match were informed of the result. One of those is forward Colin Larkin.
"I heard they won last year," the Waterford, MI, product said. "Some of the local guys had friends on the other team and they had bragging rights for a year. The guys were actually a little frustrated about it.
"We definitely don't want that to happen this year."
While Larkin didn't experience the disappointment his teammates did, the 6-foot-2, 197-pounder simply wants to put his individual and team performance on display.
"It's an opportunity for us to show well and play hard," he said. "It's a hockey game, so it's all between the boards for 60 minutes."
