It was a light weekend for the Okotoks Bisons, who continue to chase the Coaldale Copperheads for first-place in the Heritage Junior Hockey League’s (HJHL) South Division.
The Bisons made their only game this weekend a perfect one with a 3-0 blanking of the Three Hills Thrashers on Sunday at the Murray Arena.
Christian Chivilo picked up the shutout in helping Okotoks record its fifth win in a row. However, he insisted most of the credit should go to his teammates for their dominant defensive play.
“I think we controlled most of the game, I didn’t have a whole lot of work today,” Chivilo pointed out.
After blowing a two-goal lead and ultimately losing in Three Hills 4-3 in their last meeting, the Bisons knew they would have to be prepared for Sunday’s rematch.
The Thrashers opened the game with a relentless forecheck, but could not penetrate the Okotoks defence.
The game continued at a tight defensive pace over the first 40 minutes with no goals to show for either side.
Bisons coach Rory Hennigan had an inkling the game would be decided by whomever scored first.
“After the first, I kind of figured the first team that gets a goal, they’re going to have the advantage big-time,” he said.
With time ticking down in the third period, the deadlock was eventually broken. Okotoks recorded three goals in the last 10 minutes to take the victory.
In a tight game like Sunday’s tilt, the decisive goals are often not the prettiest ones. In this case, the winning goal careened off a player before finding the back of the net.
“I figured a goal would go in how it did,” Hennigan said.
The win improved Okotoks’ record to 16-9, five points back of the division-leading Copperheads.
The Bisons were without one of their key players on Sunday and it looks like he may be gone for good. On Jan. 11, the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s (AJHL) Calgary Mustangs announced they had signed Bisons forward Wooje Sung.
The 18-year-old Sung compiled 23 points in 23 games for Okotoks.
The Bisons will take to the road next weekend to kick off a grueling stretch of three games in three nights. Okotoks will take to the road for games in High River and Red Deer, on Friday and Saturday respectively, before returning home to play the Cochrane Generals on Sunday.
The game versus the Generals will be on Sunday, Jan. 23 at the Murray Arena. Puck drop will be at 1:15 p.m.
