An Okotokian has been waiting a long time to get his first crack at the hometown team.
Rookie forward Sam Simard and the Drumheller Dragons will finally clash for the first time this season with the division rival Okotoks Oilers as members of the new two-team cohort established by the Alberta Junior Hockey League for the April 23-25 weekend.
“It’s awesome, I definitely wish that I could play in front of my hometown (fans). It would be awesome to see familiar faces in the crowd,” said Simard, a 2020 Foothills Composite graduate and former captain of the Bow Mark Oilers. “There’s mixed emotions, animosity, one of my good teammates, one of my good friends, he was my veteran (on Bow Mark) Jaevon Buschlen and then a bunch of guys I skated all summer with, like assistant coach Reid Hnatowich.
“It will be nice playing at the Centennial again, but I really want to beat them because they’re the Okotoks Oilers, they’ve definitely made a name for themselves … It would be awesome to put a stamp on a team like Okotoks.”
Though a young team this season, the Dragons (5-5) historically have played the Oilers (7-1) as tough as anyone and are a consistently hard working squad under head coach Kevin Hasselberg.
“They’ve definitely got a younger roster, we obviously haven’t seen them, but their work ethic I’m sure is going to be good as it always is,” said Oilers captain Carson Dyck. “It should be good competition and it will be good for us to see a new team.”
Okotoks has only played the Calgary Canucks, Brooks Bandits and Olds Grizzlys this season while Drumheller has locked horns with Canmore, Olds and Camrose.
Both teams will come into the cohort without having seen the ice since the start of the month.
The Oilers were able to return to practice on April 15 after being sidelined for two weeks after a team member tested positive for COVID-19, putting the squad into league mandated protocol. The Dragons have also been part of a two-week suspension of team activities since their cohort series with Camrose.
“I think the boys have kept a pretty good mindset and coming back to the rink has been awesome, obviously, everyone loves being there,” Dyck added. “(That first practice) was awesome, the competitiveness, we’ve been sitting around for two weeks and the boys were pretty amped to get back on the ice. The intensity was pretty high.”
Simard, one of 15 rookies on a revamped Dragons squad, has endured a freshman season like no other after storming out of the gates during the extended pre-season.
“We started off in exhibition really well, I started off well I had something like 10 points in nine games, then the season hit, we played those first two games against Canmore and then they had the crazy (COVID) outbreak,” Simard said. “After that we all got sent home and were home from November to mid-February. We got back and played our eight games.
“You know we’ve had our ups and downs, getting back into the groove of things, getting in shape, getting back out of shape, so it’s definitely been a grind.
“It’s a different first year junior experience, but still a memorable one.”
The two-game set gets underway on April 24 in Drumheller with the return date April 25, a 4:30 p.m. start at Pason Centennial Arena.
For more information go to okotoksoilers.ca
