The puck drops on Bisons playoff hockey tonight.
Following their first round bye in the Heritage Junior Hockey League postseason, the two-time defending champion Carstar Okotoks Bisons open the best-of-seven South Division semifinal on Saturday, Feb. 24 (5:15 p.m. Murray Arena) against a familiar foe in the High River Brewing Co. Flyers.
The Flyers should ride into the second round on a wave of momentum.
High River eliminated Cochrane in a three-game opening round play-in series. Ethan Burgeson notched the overtime winner in the decisive Game 3 victory Friday night in Cochrane.
Okotoks won the season series 3-1 though two of the victories were beyond regulation time and High River took the finale of the set last month.
Okotoks features three players who used to play for the Flyers along with a High Riverite in Ethan MacIntyre.
High River’s squad features four former Bisons along with 10 players from the Okotoks and DeWinton area.
Turner Valley’s Smith brothers, Nolan and Connor, will be lining up on opposite sides in the series as well for Okotoks and High River, respectively.
The regional rivals have not seen each other in the postseason since the second round of the 2020 playoffs, a four-game Bisons sweep.
The only other playoff meeting over the past 10 seasons was a terrific 2014 South Final that went six games in Okotoks’ favour.
https://twitter.com/OkotoksBisons/status/1760178581815353382
Game 2 is Monday, Feb. 26 in High River at 7:30 p.m. with Game 3 Feb. 27 back in Okotoks at 8:15 p.m. The schedule for Game 4 has not been released. If necessary, Game 5 is March 2 at 8 p.m. in Okotoks.
The other HJHL South Division semifinal pits the second seed Medicine Hat Cubs versus the third-seed Coaldale Copperheads.
The North Division series feature Sylvan Lake against Airdrie along with Mountain View versus Rocky.
For more information, go to okotoksbisons.com.
