A best ever finish at the Mac’s Tournament wasn’t quite enough to advance.
The Okotoks Bow Mark Oilers posted a club best 2-1-1 record at the Mac’s Midget Tournament, but lost out on a playoff spot on a tiebreaker to finish the tournament in the round-robin stage for the third consecutive year.
“We played extremely well,” said Bow Mark Oilers head coach Ryan Barrett. “But I’m not going to lie to you, the officiating in the last two games was just horrendous in my opinion. (Against Lloydminster) it really took an opportunity away from our guys.
“I was really impressed with the way our guys dealt with the adversity we dealt with, in those high pressure moments with lots of fans, hopefully this experience will allow us to learn for the next opportunity where it maybe it doesn’t go our way in playoffs or another big game.”
Needing a win and a lot of help in the other games, the Oilers took care of their end of the bargain in the round-robin finale, dispatching the Swift Current Legionnaires by 3-1 count on Dec. 30 at Father David Bauer Arena.
Captain Sam Simard scored two first period goals, the first on the first shot of the game inside two minutes and the second on an errant clearing attempt by the Legionnaires into their own net.
Ivan Chtchadov added an empty-netter after Okotoks spent the latter half of the third period on the penalty kill, with netminder Adam Goody and the shorthanded units putting in a sterling effort.
“Coming in today we just thought goals, goals, goals,” said Simard, a second year forward on the Oilers. “We needed goals, but also their score mattered most so we wanted to keep that to a zero.
“It was do-or-die, we needed what we needed and it’s tough.”
The goal differential tiebreaker put Okotoks out of the mix for the final wild-card berth, a fact the team could do little about after the competition.
“You’re always stuck with things like that playing hockey, mentally you’re stuck with knowing you’ve got to win and it still might not be good enough,” said Oilers forward Simon Smith-Burness. “But you can’t quit, even if you’re down by three goals in the third period you’ve got to keep going, you can’t quit no matter what.
“You’ve got to be mentally strong like that.”
The Oilers gathered momentum at the marquee tournament after an inauspicious start.
The Okanagan Rockets, the Pool 3 winners and top team in B.C.’s AAA league, overpowered the Oilers by a 6-2 count in the group icebreaker on Boxing Day at Max Bell Centre.
Simard and centre Daxton Budd provided the goals while the Rockets were powered by a four-goal second period and led on offence with a two-goal outburst from Zac Funk.
“Okanagan, they’re a good team, they played extremely well,” Barrett said. “Our bounce back against Fort Sask was extremely good.”
Okotoks rebounded the next day with a comprehensive 3-1 win over the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers.
Moe Hakim and Ethan MacIntyre lit the lamp for Okotoks with Simard adding the empty-netter. At the other end of the ice, Goody stopped 20 of 21 shots on goal.
The third-round robin game saw the Lloydminster Bobcats storm back with two Jagger Firkus goals in the final five minutes to secure a 2-2 tie with Okotoks. Both goals came on the powerplay with some calls the Okotoks bench boss questioned.
“We played well and deserved a better fate – that tie really hurt us,” Barrett said. “We need to score more pucks earlier, we had opportunities to have more pucks in the net and sometimes when you leave games to the end like that and you’re having success and not scoring you’re still giving that team a chance to stay in the game and do some damage late.
“And that’s what happened.”
Smith-Burness and Ethan McKibbin had earlier staked the Oilers to a two-goal lead with second period markers with centre Liam Watkins assisting on both tallies.
Despite not getting out of the group it was an experience to remember for Okotoks.
“The Mac’s is the coolest thing I’ve ever been a part of personally,” Simard said. “That whole aspect of everyone is there and everyone is supporting you, the hockey community is so close and getting a look at those teams that come from so far away just to play here, hockey is universal.
“This is the kind of level that you’ve got to compete at further to go somewhere.”
Smith-Burness echoed the sentiment.
“I’ve never seen that many people in the stands, it’s lots of exposure on the hockey side of it and just having fun, regardless of which way it goes,” he said. “It’s Christmas break, everyone is getting a break, even Dub (WHL) guys are getting a break and we’re out here at the rink and if you don’t want to be here you shouldn’t be here.
“They took away our Christmas break, but we all loved it, there’s no place we would rather be. It’s what we do for fun.”
Okotoks, 14-4-3 in the AMHL, turns its attention back to league play on the weekend with two games at Pason Centennial Arena versus the visiting CAC Gregg Distributors and SSAC Boston Pizza Athletics on Jan. 4, a 6:30 p.m. start, and Jan. 5 at
4:15 p.m.
It’s a busy stretch, much like the Mac’s, with 11 more regular season games before the playoffs.
“Just take it in stride, take all of this hockey right after another, all of this being fatigued and still having to go,” Smith-Burness said. “Take it and move forward and use it into playoffs because in playoffs we’re going to be playing lots, too.
“It’s another experience and we get a second chance in the playoffs.”
For more information go to amhl.ab.ca
