The penalty-kill has been the Okotoks Oilers’ saving grace on home-ice all season, but against the top-ranked team in the country it was their downfall.
The Brooks Bandits scored four power-play goals and added an empty-net marker to overpower the Oilers 5-2 Saturday at Pason Centennial Arena in Okotoks.
“They have the best powerplay in the league and really don’t have any set plays that they look for,” said Okotoks head coach James Poole. “They just have a lot of skill and composure with the puck.
“I thought we were a little too passive and when we did have chances to clear the pucks we were not getting out.”
Brooks, which went 4-for-7 on the man-advantage with tallies from four different skaters, improved its deadly statistics on the powerplay to a 34.2 per cent success rate on the road and managed to drop the Oilers’ vaunted penalty-kill on home ice to third in the league.
“Give them credit for what they did on the powerplay,” said Poole, whose Oilers only allowed five shorthanded goals in Okotoks all season prior to the game. “Obviously it was a huge difference in tonight’s game.”
With a promising first period the Oilers (18-12-2) pushed Brooks (30-1-0) as the ice was tilted in the Oilers’ favour with a relentless forecheck.
Okotoks had a chance to get on the board when rookie sniper John Edwardh was awarded a penalty shot 3:17 into the game, but the 18-year-old was stymied by Bandits netminder Devon Fordyce.
The Bandits then made the Oilers pay for a retaliatory roughing penalty when Anthony Petruzelli beat Okotoks’ netminder Keith Hamilton with just 30 seconds left in the period.
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Taylor Makin doubled Brooks’ lead on the powerplay midway through the middle frame, but was answered by Okotoks’ Scott Bolland, who gave the visitors a taste of their own medicine with a blistering slap shot from the point into the top-corner on the powerplay.
The celebration was short lived as Bandits defenceman Maddison Smiley scored his 16th goal of the season on a slapper from the blueline just two minutes later.
Oilers leading scorer Chris Collins cut the deficit in half after receiving a terrific breakaway pass from co-captain Robbie Fisher and beating Fordyce with a five-hole knuckle ball.
Despite the deficiencies in shorthanded-situations, the Oilers were only down 3-2 and very much in the contest heading into the final stanza.
“The message was to stay on them and attack them,” Fisher said. “They don’t like getting hit, they don’t like playing in their own zone. Urgency was the big message from the coaches and I don’t think we were as urgent as we had to be for the full 20 minutes, we had too many lapses.”
The Bandits put the game away in the final two minutes when the Oilers were handed an ill-timed too many men on the ice penalty. Dakota Mason scored the insurance marker with just 1:42 left on the clock and Petruzzelli added his second of the game into the yawning cage to put a stamp on the hard-fought 5-2 win for Brooks.
“We tried to limit their opportunities five-on-five and for the most part we did,” Poole said. “I thought we showed a little bit too much respect, but I think we can do a lot better in terms of cutting out the mistakes in turnovers and penalties.”
The Oilers, now 0-3 against Brooks this season, have cemented the claim as the second best team in the division and feel as though they’re inching closer to summiting the mountain that is the Bandits.
“They’re ranked number one in Canada and if we play our best somewhere down the road we can beat them,” said Oiler forward Tanner Olstad. “We feel like if we limit our errors and come down on our opportunities we can do it.”
The three-goal loss halted a modest three game winning streak for the Oilers featuring wins over the Olds Grizzlys in a home-and-home set. Okotoks edged the Grizzlys 3-2 on Friday in Olds with Edwardh scoring the game-winner.
The Oilers face a busy week ahead. The team travelled to picturesque Canmore for a tilt with the Eagles on Dec.11, but results were too late for press time. The Oilers then host the Calgary Canucks for the first time this season on Dec. 13 and the Drumheller Dragons on Dec. 15. Both games are 7 p.m. starts at Pason Centennial Arena.
For full schedules and results go to www.okotoksoilers.ca.
