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Deep Bisons earn series stranglehold on Flyers

Hockey: Okotoks goaltending, secondary scoring leads squad to 3-0 edge over High River
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Okotoks Bison Ryan Bedard and High River Flyer Chase Groenveld collide during Game 3 of the HJHL South semifinal series on Feb. 24 in High River. Okotoks won 5-1 and leads the series 3-0. (Remy Greer/Western Wheel)

Nearly perfect goaltending and a spread out offence is a tough formula to beat.

Despite its top-line being held off the scoreboard the Okotoks Jr. B Bisons have a 3-0 stranglehold on the best-of-seven Heritage Junior Hockey League South semifinal series after skating to a 5-1 road result over the High River Flyers on Monday night.

“That’s kind of our game plan and it was right from the beginning,” said Bisons forward Kyle Harrison. “We know our first line is the best line in the league and they’re going to be coming hard and trying to shut us down and that’s where the other three jump in.

“We can have any guy in the lineup and expect them to give it their all, play to their best abilities and the outcome speaks for itself.”

With the Tyson Scott, Tyler Witzke, Tyler Alger trio — the league’s three leading scorers — being line matched extensively against High River’s top unit led by centre Layne Sniher, the Bisons have leaned on secondary scoring and that’s something the top team in the league has in spades.

In Game 3, Harrison — who played the last 10 games of the regular season after being sidelined with a knee injury for over a year — opened the scoring with an absolute snipe on the powerplay late in the first period.

“It feels like a long-time coming,” Harrison said. “I know the boys were nothing but supportive for me. I missed a lot of time and I only have a handful of games left here, this is my last year of competitive hockey so I’m going to try and make them all count.”

High River evened the score in the middle frame when Logan MacLean found twine only to have Okotoks rally for two quick goals. First, Harrison doubled his output by potting his own rebound on a breakaway.

“We missed (Harrison) a lot last year throughout the season when he was injured,” said Bisons forward Jagger Thiessen. “It’s great to see him come back and now that he’s having success it’s super good that he’s going to add some scoring for us.”

Thiessen then whacked in a bouncing puck to make it a 3-1 advantage after 40 minutes.

“I think we responded good, they came out hard in the second,” Thiessen said. “It’s a different atmosphere here for sure. We just had to get pucks deep and lay some bodies out.”

In the third period, Ryan Bedard added his third goal in as many games and Joel Deeprose rounded out the scoring with a wicked wrist shot from the slot. Devin Reagan stopped 23 of 24 shots for his third win of the series. The dominant 21-year-old has made a staggering 89 saves on 90 shots in the series.

In Game 2 of the series, the Bisons rode a dominant middle stanza to a 6-0 romp on Feb. 23 at the Murray Arena.

Bedard, Dylan Wenzel, Austin O’Bray and Evan Woods all tallied in the middle frame with Tyson Laduke and Nic Jordan adding the other tallies in the six-goal victory. Reagan made 33 saves for his second consecutive shutout and third in his playoff career.

In the series opener, Okotoks showed no signs of playoff rust in blanking the Flyers 2-0 in front of a packed house on Feb. 21 at the Murray Arena.

“Playing a rival, you’re always going to get up for that game playing High River,” said Bedard. “I think we’ve been ready for playoffs all year, we’ve been looking forward to it since the season started and we went on that run.

“Ever since then we’ve been ready and we’ve been mentally preparing for this.”

The Bisons carried most of the play in the opening frame, but the Flyers had grade-A opportunities on a trio of breakaways only to be turned aside by Reagan, who stopped all 34 shots he faced.

“We held pressure for most of that first period and kind of outplayed them,” said Bisons head coach Chris Beston. “And Devin made the saves that we needed him to make and we capitalized on everything after that.”

Bedard opened the scoring shortly into the middle frame, driving wide to the net and getting the puck past Flyers netminder Davyn LaRocke, a shotstopper on a terrific run of form down the stretch and early in the playoffs. Riker Franczak then added the insurance goal.

“It started with a good play by Bedsy right off the bat,” Beston added. “Going hard to the net and getting a goal first shift and that got our confidence up. Their goalie made some good saves in the first period that he probably shouldn’t have and he’s a good goalie so we needed to get one early.”

Game 4 of the HJHL South semifinal is Feb. 28 in High River as the Flyers will look to stave off elimination on home ice.

“Don’t change anything,” Harrison said. “We know that they’re not done, they’re going to be playing for pride Friday so we can expect their A-game and we’ll have to show up and be ready to go.”

For more information go to okotoksbisons.com


Remy Greer

About the Author: Remy Greer

Remy Greer is the assistant editor and sports reporter for westernwheel.ca and the Western Wheel newspaper. For story tips contact [email protected]
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