The Kootenay Ice dropped a close 3-2 OT decision to the Oil Kings on Saturday night in Edmonton in a clash between two top teams in the Eastern Conference.

The Oil Kings have crowned themselves as the conference leaders, well ahead of their closest competitors in the Ice and the Moose Jaw Warriors, which are currently slugging it out for second and third place honours.

Nathan Lieuwen played yet another solid game in net, facing 44 shots from the Oil Kings, which outshot Kootenay in all four periods, while the Ice returned 27 on Oil Kings' stopper Laurent Brossoit.

It was a Reinhart reunion, as Sam and Max faced off against their brother, Griffin, but the middle sibling never dressed for the game as he is recovering from an injury.

Despite the loss, Ice assistant coach Todd Johnson said the coaching staff is pleased with the effort they've seen over the last few games.

"You look at our last three games and we're getting better every game and that's what we're looking for as a coaching staff," said Johnson. "We're very pleased with our players' effort tonight."

The Ice managed to hold off the Oil Kings for the first three-quarters of the period but Tyler Maxwell managed to draw first blood on the powerplay near the end of the frame.

The Ice evened the score five minutes into the second period, when Sam Reinhart scored his 13th goal of the season, which tied him for a franchise record for most points by a 16-year-old rookie forward. Jarrett Stoll collected 34 points in the 1998/99 season and Nigel Dawes tallied the same number in the 2001/02 campaign.

Steve McCarthy, a former Ice defenceman, holds the record at 40 points in his inaugural year in the 1997/98 season when the franchise was still in Edmonton.

Brother Max and Joe Antilla notched the assisting honours, as the latter makes his way back into the forward line after patching up the defensive corps for the last few weeks.

"He's a big body and creates a lot of room for us," said Sam Reinhart, who lines with his brother and Antilla. "It's made it a lot easier on us with the room he makes, and he can make plays and get some offense going, too."

The Ice held off the Oil Kings for the remainder of the frame, and took the lead less than a minute into the third period, off a goal from Ice defenceman Jagger Dirk.

But the lead only lasted for roughly eight minutes, when Henrik Samuelsson beat Lieuwen to even up the score and send the contest into overtime.

The Oil Kings dominated in the extra frame, pasting four shots on Lieuwen, one of which found the back of the net off an effort from Jordan Peddle.

Even though the team still smarts from the loss, they've walked away knowing they can match up with one of the hottest teams in the WHL, said Sam Reinhart.

"We know they're a good team and we battled hard throughout the whole game and got a little unlucky at the end; things didn't quite go our way there.

". . .Today we really showed that if we're all making an effort, that we can stay in games with everyone."

Johnson added that the team is heading "in the right direction" based on it's performance in recent wins against the Red Deer Rebels and the Medicine Hat Tigers.

"We're starting to play a more complete game," Johnson said. "We're fore-checking hard and we're back-checking as well. We're playing 60 minutes instead of 40-you know, that was a problem, I think, when we were having some problems winning; I don't think we were playing a complete game.

"I think tonight, we had a complete effort from top to bottom and I thought our last three games were very similar."

The Ice will head into Saskatchewan on Wednesday night to challenge the Regina Pats, who have only lost two games in their last eight contests.