Good things happen when you go to the net, as the saying goes. The Kootenay Ice did that this weekend, many times, but when Monday rolled around they had but three of a possible six points to show for it. Dropping a 2-1 decision to the Edmonton Oil Kings Sunday night at the Rec Plex in front of a record-low crowd of 2,468 the club was as frustrated by their lack of success at turning on the red light as they were at spinning the turnstiles. “Yeah, I know,” Ice forward Andrew Bailey concurred after Sunday night’s loss in which the 20-year-old notched his first of the year. “We’re getting to the net. We’re getting lots of pucks there but maybe we have to battle a little more. I like how we’ve played and how good we’ve been defensively. They’ll start going in.”

Bailey, like his coach, didn’t have a timeline but hoped following a week of practice before hosting the red-hot Swift Current Broncos and the soon-to-be powerhouse Kelowna Rockets that it would happen sooner rather than later. “Sooner or later that puck has to start going in,” Ice head coach Mark Holick lamented after the loss. “Our best guys have to be our best guys. The inconsistent play from our best guys is a problem. I like the effort but we’re not very efficient in making the decisions we need to make at the times we need to make them.”

“Coach Holick’s right,” said Ice forward Dustin Sylvester. “I didn’t play very good tonight. I expect a lot of myself and when I have a game like that I get pretty mad at myself. The next game I have to be better, which I expect to be.”

One of those times might’ve been when the Oil Kings capitalized on an Ice neutral zone turnover, Oil King leading scorer Brendan Dowd streaked into the zone and found Craig McCallum for the redirect past Ice rookie starter Nathan Lieuwen 3:22 into the second period. After a first period of taking the play to the Oil Kings, out-shooting their opponents 9-4, Kootenay came out flat in the middle frame only to awaken in the second half of the frame when Edmonton got into some penalty trouble.

However, an 0-28 drought through the club’s last five games didn’t inspire any confidence until Bailey finally broke the goose-egg, both the club’s anaemic power play and his own drought to start the season. Of the 26 shots on 16-year-old rookie Cam Lanigan would face in his first WHL start, it would be the only one to elude him.

“You look at their second goal,” continued Holick. “All they did was throw it at the net and somehow it made its way to the net through six bodies and a 6-foot-five goalie’s legs. At the other end we’re throwing pucks at the net but it hits bodies, sticks or misses the net. It’ll turn around, it has to turn around.”

“I doubt we can go 72 games with one goal a game with the shots we’re getting. Sooner or later our shooting percentage has to catch up with us.”

The second year head coach also kept his cool on the Oil Kings’ winning goal. Bailey, on an attempted clear-out dumped the puck into one of the numerous empty Rec Plex seats. Originally the linesman signalled it was off a stick but after a football-style huddle - all that was missing was the replay hood on the sidelines - they ruled it was shot out directly. Bailey didn’t argue and admitted as much after the game.

What steamed his coach was the pick the Oil Kings’ eventual scorer Brent Raedeke threw on the club’s rush into the zone that went uncalled. “That’s what we thought but then we started scrambling and running around and obviously it found it’s way into our net,” said Holick.

After a 3-1 win over the Calgary Hitmen at home Friday night, the return match in Calgary Saturday saw the return of John Negrin to the club from the Calgary Flames in time to earn an assist on the tying goal in the last minute of play by Kevin King Saturday before the club dropped the decision in a shoot-out. “The boys played really well in Calgary but tonight we couldn’t really get it going,” said Negrin. “It’s disappointing and we deserved better.”

Quick Hits - Negrin’s return set the roster at 26 which the head coach said would be pared down to 22-23 by Tuesday. Expect a defenseman and at least two forwards to be cut Tuesday… Forward Matt Fraser suffered a separated shoulder in Friday night’s win over Calgary and will miss 10 to 14 days… Announced attendance Sunday was 2,468, a record low for a regular season game. For those keeping track announced averaged attendance is 2,646 through the club’s first four home dates, down 237 or 8 percent over the same amount of games last season.