Some grease helped the Okotoks Junior A Oilers end the Thanksgiving weekend on a positive note.
Oiler Robbie Fisher had a hat trick in Okotoks’ come-from-behind 4-2 victory over the Drayton Valley Thunder Sunday to salvage two of a possible six points on its three-game road trip.
The Oilers fell behind 2-0 in the first period Oct.7 in Drayton Valley when Fisher’s first goal helped turn the game around.
“I thought it was Robbie Fisher’s first goal that really got the guys going on the bench,” said Oilers head coach James Poole. “I thought we controlled the game after his first goal.”
The Oilers would tie the game 2-2 with less than 30 seconds left in the second period when Okotoks newcomer defenceman Kyle Krabben scored on a feed from Tanner Olstad and Fisher.
Okotoks would take a one-goal lead late in the third period on Fisher’s second goal to put the Oilers up 3-2. They put the game away when Fisher put the puck into an empty net to make the final 4-2 and give the 19-year-old forward his first hat trick in his Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) career.
Fisher said there was nothing pretty about his first goal.
“It was a greasy goal,” Fisher said. “I just kept digging away at it (the puck) in front of the net and it went in.”
He downplayed Poole’s comments the goal was the turning point, adding the team had began to really turn it on prior to his goal.
The win was the first victory in regulation time for the Oilers.
Their four previous wins had come in OT or by the shootout.
“That was a big monkey off our back to finally win one in regulation,” Poole said.
The Oilers beat a formidable opponent in the Thunder. Drayton Valley used to be one of the weak sisters in the Northern Division of the AJHL. Although they are in fourth-place in the North they came into the game as a honourable mention in the Canadian Junior Hockey League rankings.
Okotoks goalie Jared D’Amico was flawless after giving up the two first period goals. The Oilers outshot the Thunder 45-22.
The turnaround for the Oilers on the weekend may have been on Saturday night, when they were downed 2-1 by Grande Prairie, despite outplaying the Storm, Poole said.
The Oilers outshot the Storm 36 to 20, but Grande Prairie goalie Curtis Skip, who was named the game star, turned away 35 shots.
Okotoks’ lone goal came from Greg Lamoureux, his second of the season, two minutes into the first period.
Eighteen-year-old Devin Green got the start in net for Okotoks and faced 20 shots.
The Oilers started their three-game road trip in the AJHL’s newest town, Whitecourt to take on the Wolverines Friday night.
Whitecourt might be a nice play to live, but it turned out to be a crummy place to visit on a holiday weekend. The Wolverines doubled up the Oilers 4-2.
After a scoreless first period, the Wolverines jumped on the Oilers with a short-handed, unassisted goal by Joel Herbert seven minutes into the second. They would increase their lead to 2-0 just a minute and a half later when Conner Dea scored.
The Oilers closed the gap to 2-1 when team-leading scorer Chris Collins potted his fourth goal of the year.
However, the Wolverines would regain their lead before the end of the period to make it 3-1.
The two teams exchanged goals in the final 20 minutes with Oiler Connor Hartley scoring the final tally of the game with a powerplay goal to make the final score 4-2.
D’Amico took the loss in net.
Poole said while it would have been nice to comeback from the Thanksgiving jaunt with more than two points, the team played hard and is getting comfortable with the Oilers’ system.
He added the team got a lift from the Green Army, the hard core Oilers fan club, which made the trip to the north.
The Oilers have a 5-5-1 record and sit in sixth-place in the AJHL’s South Division.
They will take on the second-place Camrose Kodiaks Thursday in Camrose. The Kodiaks is one of the Oilers’ biggest rivals in the league.
The Oilers finally get to return to the friendly confines of Pason Centennial Arena in Okotoks on the weekend — the first time since Sept. 25 when they beat the Canmore Eagles.
The Lloydminster Bobcats take on the Oilers Oct. 13 at the Centennial Arena at 7 p.m.
