On the bus ride into Okotoks on the afternoon of March 12, there was only subdued chatter among the Olds Grizzlys as they thought about the do-or-die final game of their best-of-five series against the Okotoks Oilers.
On the bus ride into Okotoks on the afternoon of March 12, there was only subdued chatter among the Olds Grizzlys as they thought about the do-or-die final game of their best-of-five series against the Okotoks Oilers.
It was forward Landon Kletke who reminded his teammates before the game that it was one year to the day that the Oilers had ended Olds' 2012-13 playoff run with a 5-1, Game 5 win in Okotoks.
In an eerie, yet thrilling, turnaround, the Grizzlys set the Oilers to clearing out their dressing room for the summer with their own 5-1, Game 5 win.
Backed by a deafening regiment of Olds fans who made the trip south for the game by bus, the Grizzlys came out brimming with confidence from their 6-2 win in Game 4 two days earlier in Olds.
Neither the crowd of 1,076 nor the Oilers' Fight Club-era Jared Leto hair colouring seemed to faze the Olds squad as BJ Duffin drew first blood for the Grizzlys 112 seconds into the game with a point-blank bullet that Okotoks netminder Jared D'Amico couldn't handle.
The goal riled up Olds' already rowdy cheering section but the Oilers wouldn't let the Grizzlys enjoy the lead long.
After Matt McNair's shot bounced off Grizzlys goaltender Ethan Jemieff's chest, Robbie Fisher quickly found the rebound and drove a shot home at the 15:14 mark.
Okotoks had its first power-play opportunity when Austin Kernahan went to the box on a goalie interference penalty at 9:47 in the first period, but the Oilers couldn't capitalize.
In fact, the only successful power plays of the night came in the last five minutes of the game and one of them was an empty-net goal in the last half-minute.
But we'll get to that.
The second frame opened with Olds' fan contingent ramping up their taunts toward D'Amico and each team squandered a handful of extra-man chances throughout the period.
Midway through the period, Jemieff made a huge deadlock-maintaining, leg-outstretched save while Kletke was serving time on an elbowing penalty.
The period ended with Okotoks outshooting Olds 22-21.
With the deadlock continuing into the third period and each squad playing nearly flawless hockey, fans on both sides were readying their nails for biting.
But Kyle Star decided to score his first goal of the playoffs at the 16:33 mark by shoving a stubborn shot through traffic that just skirted D'Amico's right leg to put the Grizzlys up 2-1.
Okotoks, with their season on the line, threw everything they had at Jemieff and at one point midway through the third period he stopped a barrage of shots while on his feet, his knees and his butt to keep Olds' lead intact.
From there on out, Olds didn't look back.
Kyle Moore scored his third goal of the playoffs when he picked up a backhand pass from Dustin Gorgi and found the back of the net at the 8:46 mark.
Then Jack Goranson landed a shot fired inches from the blue line with five minutes left to play to punish Okotoks's Tanner Ockey for his tripping penalty.
With 25.2 seconds left in the game, Olds' Chaydan Lauber in the penalty box and D'Amico benched to give Okotoks a two-man advantage, Moore earned his second goal of the night by aiming true at the Oilers' empty net.
As the buzzer screeched to end the game, the team that had finished seventh in the Alberta Junior Hockey League's south division during the regular season burst from its bench to hug each other and acknowledge the jubilant fans in the stands behind them, while the team that had finished second skated to the sidelines in stunned silence.
Star, who was named the Grizzlys' star of the game, said winning the series in Okotoks on March 12 was poetic justice for the defeat the Oilers has handed Olds in the first round of playoffs last season.
"We wanted to go to war for our 20-year-olds, for our players (from) last year that lost to these guys who sent us home crying," he said. "We just put everything on the line and good things happened."
Moore said his team was happy to come into the series as underdogs and hearing the coaches preach throughout the year that "everything changes" during the playoffs put the squad's rough ending to the regular season—where the team won one game in its last 10 outings—right out of everyone's minds.
"They built a playoff team from Jemi(eff) out and we got those goal scorers and secondary scoring we're starting to get."
He and Star praised Jemieff, who stopped 30 of 31 shots in Game 5, for his vigilance between the pipes throughout the series.
"Our Jemi gives us a chance to win every night, proved tonight again and it's great to have that support so we can get some confidence in our scoring," Moore said.
Jemieff, in turn, gave credit to head coach Brett Hopfe who, after the Grizzlys took the lead in the third period and the Oilers were fighting hard to wear down the Olds defence, called a timeout to calm his team.
"That was a great call on Hopfe's behalf, calling that timeout and settling everyone down. Once everyone got settled and just (focused) on doing your job and that's what they did, put the puck in the net a few more times and now we're here, going into Round 2."
The second round for Olds begins on March 14 when the Grizzlys meet the Bandits— who finished the regular season at the top of the south division, a full 35 points ahead of Olds— in Brooks for Game 1 of a best-of-seven series.
Star said the Grizzlys are going at the Bandits with the same strategy they employed against Okotoks.
"They're a really skilled team just like Okotoks that came first in our league," he said. "So we're just going to have to go to war again, play our hearts out, get the puck in deep and go to work."
And Jemieff said the team just plans to continue playing "hard-nose hockey" and give everything they have, especially for the upper-year players who move on after this season.
"Obviously for the 20s, we want to play big right now, especially for (team captain Spencer) Doro(wicz) because he pretty much pulled us the whole season," he said, adding it doesn't matter that Dorowicz, who led the AJHL in goal scoring this season, has yet to tally a goal in the playoffs.
"It's just going to be a blowout once he gets going."
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