Raphael Lavoie and Noah Philp are two forwards still in the conversation for fourth-line spots on Edmonton’s opening roster after both continued their stellar showings at Camp with goals in Saturday night’s 5-4 exhibition win over the Seattle Kraken.
Philp used his speed in the first period to get on the end of a nice pass from Mattias Ekholm and tuck his first goal of the preseason past netminder Philipp Grubauer to make it 2-2. The 26-year-old former University of Alberta Golden Bear was also 9-for-11 in the faceoff dot and his versatility as a penalty-killer is proving to be a nice surprise for the coaching staff.
"That was a nice goal," Knoblauch said. "To be able to catch it and put it up there with very little room there, it was a nice play. And then, you look at things that he needs to do well and I thought he made some really nice plays. He killed [penalties] and broke up some nice plays. In faceoffs, I think he was 9-2, which is very important for him to be noticed. Just another good game from him."
Lavoie can score goals in plenty of different ways, and the Chambly, QC product's tally with less than three minutes left on Saturday came after he showed poise with the puck between his feet in the left circle before he controlled the puck and snapped a quick shot five-hole on Grubauer for the winning goal late in the contest.
"That was a key play," Knoblauch said."He's got good hands and an even better shot.
"You see how hard he can shoot the puck, especially on the one he scored [against Winnipeg] on a power-play one-timer. We've seen that a couple of times in preseason, but the quick release, we haven't seen it as much. But tonight, he excelled and it was great skill on that goal."
