By Remy Greer
Staff Reporter
A week after missing out on the provincial banner, the Okotoks Bantam AA Oilers made the most of a second opportunity at winning some hardware.
The Oilers pulled off a perfect postseason after defeating the Wheatland Warriors 2-1 Sunday in Strathmore to sweep the South Central Alberta Hockey League (SCAHL) championship series 3-0.
“It’s definitely a great feeling especially since it was a little bitter not winning provincials,” said Okotoks captain Dawson Wade. “The main thing was our drive to succeed, everybody was really hungry for victory the whole way through and I don’t think we took any periods off.
“For the whole team it was a great experience.”
Facing elimination in Game 3, Wheatland was a motivated group and put Okotoks on its heels scoring the opening marker.
Warrior Kody Hammond gave the hosts an early second period lead, answered quickly by Okotoks winger Tyler Coffey. A 1-1 score going into the final frame set the stage for Oilers forward Ryan Partaker’s biggest goal of his young career, the game and series winning marker with 9:16 remaining.
“The defence just shot it from the point and it hit the goalie and bounced right to me so I just walked across and shot it in the net,” said Partaker, a Grade 8 student at John Paul II Collegiate. “It feels awesome.”
Oiler goaltender Liam Aitken shut the door on the Warriors’ surge, stopping 25 of 26 shots.
Okotoks took early control of the series with a 2-0 victory in Game 1, Thursday on home ice. Wade and Travis Yee tickled the twine for the Oilers.
Game 2 on Saturday in Okotoks was not for the faint of heart. Wheatland’s Alec Biletsky beat the buzzer and Aitken with a first-period marker with one second on the clock.
Undaunted, the Oilers replied by winning the second period and taking a 2-1 lead on a pair of markers from Wyatt Derksen.
Sensing the magnitude of the contest, the Warriors pushed back with a strong third period and were rewarded for their efforts when Andrew Bretin went in on a clean breakaway and tied the game 2-2, sending the game into overtime.
The Oilers would need just 95 seconds in the extra session to skate away as winners. Coffey’s wrap around on a feed from Ty Budai found its way behind Wheatland’s Nolan Kent, giving Okotoks the 3-2 win and firm control of the series.
“That was probably the biggest momentum shift of the whole series, being able to take a victory on that,” said Wade, a Grade 9 student at John Paul II Collegiate. “The main part that helped us was that we were able to bounce back and keep rolling. We didn’t get down on ourselves (when they tied it) and had enough confidence that we could just play our game.”
With one game decided in overtime and all three decided by two goals or under, the hard-fought, evenly matched series may have come down to determination.
“We played really good as a team and battled through all the adversity we faced,” Partaker said. “We bonded well as a team from day one.”
League titles are old hat for Partaker and the core group of the Oilers, who last year won the Peewee AA league championship. Partaker and Oiler teammates Carter Harris, Brandt Black and Kale Hawryluk have each won six consecutive league banners from Atom 1 all the way to Bantam AA.
“Every year it’s awesome winning it as a team,” Partaker said.
For Wade and blueliner Cooper Krauss, the only second-year players on the team, the incoming winning pedigree was infectious in the dressing room.
“We try not to sound cocky and go into every game wanting to win, but we were having a lot of thoughts that we were expecting to win (a banner),” Wade said. “We all had a pretty good feeling about it.”
