Revenge is a dish best served up right before the holidays.
The Carstar Okotoks Bisons got a little payback for their two defeats this season with consecutive road triumphs over the Cochrane Cannex Generals and Coaldale Copperheads on the final weekend before the pre-holiday break in the Heritage Junior Hockey League.
“We wanted to finish out strong headed into the new year with a couple week break now,” said Bisons captain Lucas Watkins. “These are the teams that gave us our only losses this year, so we knew it was going to be a big weekend and wanted to pay them back for giving us those.”
In their first meeting in over two months, Okotoks took it to Cochrane in a comprehensive 3-0 triumph on Dec. 15.
Scott Brown scored unassisted, added a powerplay marker and Brayden Kapty rounded out the scoring on the man advantage while Grady Nicholas stopped 14 shots to secure his third shutout of the season.
“They’ve got some good players up front,” Watkins said. “And we were able to keep them in check pretty good. Last time we played them, we didn’t play the game that we like to and came in and played our game, played Bison hockey and it prevailed for us.”
A similar script played out the following night in the Snake Pit.
Okotoks made its second trip to Coaldale in a fortnight and this time skated to a 7-2 romp.
Watkins scored twice, Adam Kirkpatrick added a goal and two helpers with Brown, Easton Dean, Jake Snashall and Seamus Garagan all posting one goal, one assist performances.
“Last time we were there we weren’t moving our feet as much and were letting them take the game to us,” Watkins said. “(Saturday) we took it to them, kept our foot on the pedal and didn’t give up, when we got a lead we just kept on them and really took them out of the game.”
The past three games also marked the return to the lineup of gritty forward Cody Steinert and smooth-skating defenceman Connor Claughton.
“That was definitely huge,” Watkins said. “You get a guy like Steinert who’s a really good, hard-working forward and is just going to go out and work his bag off and we really appreciate that.
“And getting my D-partner back in Claughton, it was nice to have, he’s a really skilled, fast guy and brings a lot to the table.”
Okotoks (22-2-0) owns a seven-point lead on both Medicine Hat and Coaldale atop the Southern Division standings. The Bisons are back on the ice with a busy January featuring five of eight games at the Murray Arena, starting Jan. 5 versus Strathmore.
“This was probably one of our better weekends of the year,” Watkins said. “And we were able to get some good separation in the South, for first place, which is something we always strive for.
“I really like where we’re sitting now heading into the break.”
For more information on the team, go to okotoksbisons.com.
