A blowout, a nailbiter and two shutouts have the Bisons two wins away from locking up top-spot.
The Okotoks Carstar Bisons produced a 9-0 romp over the Three Hills Thrashers and eked out a 1-0 victory over the Mountainview Colts on Jan. 20-21 to increase their winning streak to 10 games, improve to 30-2-0 and move to four points away from clinching first place in the Heritage Junior Hockey League.
“It is tough to play in those kind of games, but I think we did a good job of playing a full 60 and saving ourselves for (Mountainview),” said Bisons captain Lucas Watkins after the Three Hills game. “Just taking it shift by shift, because you never know what you can expect from a team in a game and every game really is just a build-up for playoffs.
“We want to stay sharp and not fall into bad habits.”
A mismatch on paper featuring the team with the most points in the Heritage and the team with the least, Okotoks took a more macro approach to the encounter.
“It’s just be consistent with what our goals are for the season,” said Bisons rookie defenceman Connor Claughton. “And not letting the record of their team make it so we think we’re just going to walk them. Come in and want to pound it to them, don’t back down.
“And I think that was the big thing.”
In the first period, the floodgates opened with Alaister Standen and AJ Belanger scoring 36 seances apart, BJ Rogi tallying on a slap pass from blueliner Brayden Kapty and Braedon LeGrandeur whacking in a third rebound opportunity in the crease.
Standen completed the first-period hat-trick with two more light-lamping efforts on consecutive shifts to sew up the six-goal opening frame for Okotoks.
“We were just shooting pucks and getting bodies to the net,” Watkins said. “We’ve struggled doing that at times this year and it was good to just see them go in for us with all the traffic we had there in the first.”
The second period saw Watkins find the back of the net on a seeing eye point on the man-advantage with Simon Smith-Burness making it an eight-goal lead with a rebound conversion in the high slot.
Okotoks then matched its season high ninth goal in a game, a total it hit in its only other meeting with Three Hills in mid-September, with Watkins potting his second of the night to round out the scoring.
“In the second and third, it was just not letting them score,” Claughton added. “We were playing good D and letting the game come to us and being relaxed, but not too relaxed.”
At the other end of the ice, Grady Nicholas had a quiet 13-save shutout, his third of the campaign and improved to 8-0 with the herd.
On Saturday, authored a late-winner to edge the Colts in Didsbury.
Daniel Tainton broke the scoreless deadlock with 2:22 left in regulation in what was the only tally on the night.
Dylan Fries made 29 saves for his second shutout. As a team, the Bisons have seven shutouts during the 2022-23 campaign.
Additionally, Okotoks has yet to lose a game to Northern Division opposition with just one inter-divisional clash remaining on the schedule versus the Airdrie Thunder.
At 60 points, the Bisons will have the opportunity to clinch home-ice advantage in the postseason on next weekend’s homestand.
Two wins, regardless of what happens on the out-of-town scoreboard, will lock up top spot in the Heritage for the Bisons who welcome the Strathmore Wheatland Kings on Jan. 27 and Medicine Hat Cubs on Jan. 28.
Both games are 8 p.m. starts at the Murray Arena.
For more information go to okotoksbisons.com.
