An undermanned Okotoks Oilers squad finished on a high from a tough task on paper.
Facing last season’s champions and finalists, the Oilers skated to a weekend split in back-to-back contest, dropping a 5-2 home result to the Brooks Bandits followed by an impressive 2-0 road victory over the Spruce Grove Saints.
Christian Green made 24 saves against the Saints on Dec. 9 for his first shutout in the AJHL and first win since mid-November.
“Every night our goal and mindset is that (our goalie) is our best player, we need him in situations when we mess up or fail, he was there to bail us out,” said Oilers associate coach Reid Hnatowich, on the post-game broadcast. “He did an unbelievable job. From the back-end, in terms of their puck movement and being in front of things, tons of blocked shots. Forwards, just managing pucks, being simple, getting out to the points aggressive.
“And when all of those fail safes went down, Greener was there to bail us out.”
Hunter Sawka, fresh off his commitment to Western Michigan earlier in the week, opened the scoring with a howitzer off a faceoff play and Owen MacNeil added some late insurance on the rush.
“It’s those 1-0, 2-0 games that are huge,” Hnatowich said. “Big character builders in the sense of it and just shows, when everyone buys into what we want to do, what we can accomplish.”
Okotoks played the weekend without three of its top contributors in leading scorer Sam Huck, play-driving forward Jack Silverberg and puck-moving defenceman Rylan Brown.
The three players are with Team Canada West at the World Junior A Challenge, held Dec. 10-17 in Nova Scotia.
“Those guys being out, it’s opportunities for other guys to step up,” Hnatowich said.
On Friday, the Bandits scored their 15th straight victory to knock off the Oilers at Okotoks Centennial Arenas.
In a battle of the top-ranked Oilers powerplay versus the Bandits’ No. 1 penalty kill unit, it was the visitors who struck first on special teams.
Ewan McPherson finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play in front of goal with 25 seconds remaining on a full two-minute 5-on-3 powerplay at the 6:22 mark.
The visitors took the game over in the middle stanza with Parker Lalonde and Quinn McCall lighting the lamp and team-leading scorer Mirko Buttazoni bulging the twine twice.
Okotoks rallied in the late stages with fleet-footed forward Jackson Rowland finding the back of the net along with rookie blueliner Brennen Hocher.
Mikeal Kingo stopped 24 of 29 Bandits shots in his second start since joining the Oilers.
The rivals were playing with condensed rosters on Friday with a combined nine players off to the World Junior A Challenge, six from the Bandits, headlined by AJHL wins leader Johnny Hicks and top rookie scorer Logan Sawyer.
The Bandits took the first two meetings of the season series with two more left to play with the Dec. 30 date in Brooks on the horizon.
This week, Okotoks is home for one more game before the holiday break, a midweek Dec. 12 versus the Camrose Kodiaks preceding a gruelling three-game trek to the north, from Dec. 15-17 with stops in Whitecourt followed by two in a row in Grande Prairie.
For more information, go to okotoksoilers.ca.
