All’s well that ends well for the Okotoks Bisons.
Scrappy, meandering, uneven and for this Bisons team pretty unconventional as Okotoks charged back from a second-period deficit to edge the Mountainview Colts 4-3 in a rare on-goal game on Friday night at the Murray Arena.
“It’s an early taste of playoff hockey and we need to get used to it and it’s a lot more fun to play in a close game than a blowout. You can take a lot and learn a lot from these close games,” said Bisons all-star forward Tyler Alger.
“Getting closer to the end of the year and being the top team in Canada everyone is going to bring their A-game against us and try to do anything to knock us off and predominately that’s going to be coming out physical and trying to run us off the ice basically.
“We brought our lunch pails today and showed we can answer the bell.”
The Colts, eager to avenge a 9-1 loss to Okotoks in Didsbury in the earlier meeting this season between the squads, came out with ample physical intensity and a quick-strike offence. Mountainview opened the scoring and took the lead three times in the first period while Okotoks got markers from Devyn Stewart and Tyson Laduke to cut the deficit to 3-2 at the first intermission.
The visitors had a golden opportunity to add to the advantage in the middle frame on a five-minute powerplay when Stewart was handed a game-misconduct for slashing.
Okotoks killed off the major, almost two minutes of which had the hosts in a 5-on-3 shorthanded situation, and got its own man advantage when Alger drew a penalty.
“I thought that was big because we’re a very strongly offensive team,” Alger said. “And we got a chance to help out defensively and show that we can play both sides of the game and really just focus on our defensive game and little areas like puck battles, blocking shots, getting in lanes.
“It created a lot of momentum knowing we can play good defence when we want to and when the time comes.”
The playmaking forward then showed off his trademark puck skills in pulling off a terrific shot fake before teeing up Riker Franczak for a tap-in near the blue paint.
“It was huge. We were a little bit antsy on the bench being down by one, any bounces and it could be a two-goal lead,” Alger said. “It was nice getting an odd-man rush and playing with Riker, I know he’ll be open so it was a no-brainer to find his stick and pass it to him.”
The Bisons then took their first lead of the game with 8:44 left in regulation.
While shorthanded HJHL leading scorer Tyson Scott won a defensive zone face-off and poked the puck forward for Nic Jordan who made no mistake on the breakaway for his fourth goal of the season and third in his past two games.
“We kind of drew that up,” Jordan said. “We knew we wanted to commit, he was going to tie it up and I was going to come in and support and push it behind him.
“I pushed it through to him and then he just made a nice flip play and their d-man lost his balance and I just made sure to use my speed and wheel right past him.”
The physicality evident all night boiled over just six minutes before the final buzzer when Joel Deeprose came to the defence of his teammates after a late hit by the Colts caused a skirmish.
Deeprose and Mountainview’s Alan Klinck dropped the gloves for a spirited tilt which was well received on both benches.
“I think that was huge,” Jordan said. “We kind of got pushed around at times out there, some of our smaller guys were getting hit and it was good for Deeprose to come in and let them know that’s not going to be tolerated.
“That was huge for us and really helped push us through the last six minutes there.”
Devin Reagan made 24 saves in goal to improve to a ridiculous 21-0-0 on the season.
Okotoks then blanked the Strathmore Wheatland Kings 6-0 on the road on Dec. 8.
Scott and Dylan Wenzel each scored twice with Jagger Thiessen and Evan Woods also tickling the twine. Casey Thomson pitched the shutout in his Okotoks debut with 28 saves.
Next up, Okotoks is home to the Coaldale Copperheads on Dec. 13 and the provincial host Medicine Hat Cubs on Dec. 15.
For more information go to okotoksbisons.com
