The Okotoks Bisons maintained their unblemished record in the Heritage Junior Hockey League playoffs and are one game from winning the league finals at the expense of the Blackfalds Wranglers for a second consecutive year.
The Bisons extended their perfection in the post-season by notching their 10th straight win and, more importantly, built a 2-0 lead over the Wranglers in the best-out-of-five Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) finals.
Okotoks started the finals brightly with a 7-2 win in Game 1, March 16 at Murray Arena in Okotoks, due largely to the exploits of last season’s playoff dynamo.
Bisons left-winger Phil Dillon notched a hat-trick, while linemates Lucas Mikkelsen and Ty Fehr added a combined two goals and five points in a dominant effort for the team’s second line.
“It felt like everything was going in for us, the first couple shots went in like that mad scramble on my first one,” Dillon said.
The rangy forward opened the scoring 5:55 into the opening period with a rebound potted through Blackfalds’ netminder Layne Swier’s five hole. Kevan Mikkelsen doubled the Bisons’ lead five minutes later when he accepted a feed in the slot from Zachary Baba and buried a backhander by Swier. Dillon added his second marker of the period when he was given acres of space to wrist a shot glove high over the outstretched Wrangler goalie.
With the clock winding down Jeremy Smith made a terrific deke and faked the wrap around to feed Lucas Mikkelsen for a tap in with four seconds left in the frame.
Wrangler netminder Reagan Hughes relieved Swier for the second period, but the move failed to have the desired effect. Lucas Mikkelsen scored his second of the game on a rebound in the slot and gritty forward Colin MacMurdo made it 6-0 with an unassisted goal with 5:32 to go in the period. Blackfalds responded with its best faze of the game whereby the team put two by Bisons goalie Tyler Hughes in a 1:36 span. Jared Guilbault tallied on a on-time howitzer from the slot before Chance Abbott made it 6-2.
“We had a great first period and it certainly took a little bit of an adjustment for Blackfalds to get back in the game, they showed that right in the second (period) and came out strong,” said Bisons general manager Jay McFarlane.
“We learned a little lesson there. Blackfalds is a strong team and if we stop skating it’s obvious they will take advantage of that.”
Dillon completed his hat-trick in the third period when he got by a Wrangler defender with an outside-inside deke before snapping a shot by Hughes with just 3:49 left on the clock. Okotoks goalie Tyler Hughes stopped 44 of 46 shots for his sixth win of the playoffs.
That Okotoks’ first line of Dillon Loomer, Chase Fallis and Smith, the team’s three leading scorers in the post-season, was held off the scoreboard in a seven-goal rout speaks to the embarrassment of riches the team has on offence.
“We’re going to stick with the philosophy that it’s a team win and we’re rolling, but that line was certainly shining, Phil getting a hat trick made a difference. You lead by example and that’s what he did tonight,” McFarlane said.
“You can have any line scoring on any given night, but everyone’s contributing and that’s what we need in the long run.”
Dillon said he expects his line will get more opportunities in the finals as he expects the Wranglers to be diverting their attention to the scorching hot first-unit centred by Fallis.
“Obviously they look at stats so they were going to want to shut that line down and I think they did pretty well shutting that line down and (our line) just picked it up,” Dillon said.
Regardless of who was on the ice, the Bisons general manager said his team had the clear edge in transition.
“I thought we were just the faster team (in Game 1),” McFarlane said. “When we had the legs going we were winning the battles and the puck was going in for us.”
The Bisons doubled their series lead in Game 2 with a 7-6 victory, March 18 in Blackfalds. Loomer scored a pair with MacMurdo, Eddie Tracy, Fehr, Jesse Lyall and Lucas Mikkelsen adding singles.
Bisons’ goalie Alex Caravaggio stopped 24 of the 30 shots he faced to pick up his fourth win of the playoffs.
Okotoks has a chance to clinch its second consecutive title on home ice in Game 3, Friday, March 23 8 p.m. at Murray Arena.
For more information go to www.okotoksbisons.com.
