The top-seed lived up to the billing and then some at the Sutter Cup South.
The Okotoks Oilers went undefeated en route to winning the Sutter Cup South championship on March 8 at Calgary’s WinSport to earn one of two berths for the Minor Midget AAA provincials.
“When you have the season that we’ve had and the expectations to win, it’s a different kind of pressure,” said head coach Geoff Rollins. “Getting through round-robin was not easy. We had two really strong teams that were playing well the second half of the season, the Bruins and the Rangers.
“And I think the real spark for us is we were down 3-1 against the Rangers and they have, in my opinion, probably the best goalie in the province in Nick Jones and he stopped 60 shots that game. We battled back won that game 5-3 and really didn’t look back.”
Okotoks opened the tournament, the AMMHL’s condensed playoff format, by knocking off the NWCAA Bruins 4-3 with Philip Raycroft, Tate Yule, Cyle Clayton and Aidan McArthur lighting the lamp.
“Going in as a first-place team with our record you’re kind of expected to win,” said Oilers co-captain Conyr Hellyer. “There’s lots of pressure on us, everyone wanted to beat us, but we wanted to show everyone that it’s not just during the regular season, but to show our best during playoffs as well.”
From there, the Oilers scored four unanswered to dispatch the CBHA Rangers 5-3 with McArthur, Ty McRuvie, Brandon McGillivray, Sam Callahan and Gavin Schmidt providing the offence.
“Teams that we thought maybe weren’t as strong definitely gave us a run for our money,” Hellyer said. “The games were definitely a lot closer than what they were in the regular season. And it was a lot more fun to play in, actually.”
Okotoks wrapped up round-robin in a 6-2 win over CRAA Gold.
Clayton and Hayden Pakkala each had two goals with Yule and McCallum Bakken adding singles to clinch first in the group.
“Our secret weapon all year long has been our depth,” Rollins added. “We had six 20-goal scorers this year. Pakkala went on an exceptional run with points, but really our secret weapon is depth and that was on all full display this weekend.
“It was a 19-man effort. I can’t say enough good things about our group.”
In the semifinal, Okotoks met the wild-card winning CRAA Blue and put forth a 9-1 performance to put an exclamation point on its spot in the final.
McRuvie had a hat-trick, McGillivray scored two with Pakkala, Hellyer, Raycroft and Avery Greig tickling the twine and Allen Fanning making 16 saves in goal.
“They were riding a hot goaltender at the time and were kind of the Cinderella story, a lower seed that won some games,” Rollins said. “They came out very feisty, their goaltender was playing well, but again we got on them early and kind of deflated them.
“It was the second game of the day for them which was an advantage for us. We were trying to get pucks deep and really wear their defencemen down, that’s been our key, too, we wear teams out.”
In the tournament final, the Oilers blanked the AC Avalanche 3-0 to earn the team’s first Sutter Cup South trophy in program history.
Rhett Harten put up a wall in a 26 save shutout performance while Schmidt, Clayton and McGillivray each found the back of the net in a near flawless championship match.
“We just wanted a full 60-minute game and that was probably one of our best games of the whole year,” Hellyer added. “We really dominated the team, we got good goaltending that helped us out, Rhett Harten performing a shutout gave us confidence back there so we could put on some offence.”
Both the Oilers and Avalanche are through to provincials as the South representatives joining the host Red Deer and the top-three teams out of the North, Leduc, SSAC and Sherwood Park.
The Minor Midget AAA provincials run March 19-22 in Red Deer.
For more information go to ammhl.ca
