The Oilers are feeling bullish after bearing down on an opening weekend split.
And this week, Okotoks welcomes the Olds Grizzlys and Drumheller Dragons for the home opening weekend at the Centennial Arenas after earning a win and a loss from its AJHL curtain raising road trip against the Camrose Kodiaks on Sept. 16-17.
“It’s going to be a fun game and Olds is a good team, they’ve won their first two games,” said Oilers head coach and GM Tyler Deis. “You’ve just got to go in there and work hard and have fun, which they will and not worry always what the outcome is.
“It’s about putting that in and the outcome will take care of itself.”
The home opener pits the Oilers and Grizzlys on Sept. 23 with the visitors bringing an undefeated 2-0 mark into the weekend. Drumheller is in town the following night, both games 7 p.m. starts at the Centennial Arenas.
“I know our whole group is super excited for that,” said Oilers rookie forward Jackson Rowland. “We’re going to come out heavy, we’re going to come out strong and we’re ready for it.
“It’s just coming out in that first period and being strong, not waiting until the third again. Coming out first, hitting, scoring goals, that’s our game.”
Opening night saw the Kodiaks skate to a 4-2 result over the Oilers.
Camrose took a 3-0 advantage into the third period with Okotoks narrowing the gap to one as Hunter Sawka scored his first junior goal and captain Dean Spak tallied a highlight reel marker on the penalty kill. The Kodiaks then iced the result with an empty-netter.
With the loss, Okotoks fell to 12-5 all-time in season openers.
“Our first game we just seemed a little bit nervous,” the coach added. “We were squeezing the sticks a little bit hard and we just played kind of a tight game where we weren’t free. We were nervous about making mistakes.
“The effort was there, they just seemed a little up tight.”
A nine-goal explosion ensured the Oilers got something out of opening weekend on the back end of the two-game set.
Okotoks surged back with nine goals over the final 40 minutes on Sept. 17 to skate to a 9-2 result.
“The pace of play was just a little bit different from exhibition,” Rowland said. “The second game was a little bit easier and we kind of found our groove.
“We knew it was going to be hard again, but our legs were there a little bit more.”
Rookie blueliner Jace Moffatt notched his first of the season and 19 seconds later Sawka scored his second goal in as many games to even it up. Ryan Neumann and Spak scored late in the frame.
The visitors would up the ante in the final stanza with five markers.
Connor Gourley scored on a shorthanded breakaway, Nick Wolfenberg found the back of the net from the point, Okotokian Conyr Hellyer lit the lamp on a bouncing pass from Spak with Brett Huxley and Spak adding late powerplay goals to add to the offensive onslaught.
“I think that’s one of the biggest things, especially up front, is that we do have that depth,” Deis said. “Hopefully that continues with that secondary scoring and it was a good game for those guys to experience that they have that ability to do that.”
In goal, Parker Sawka stopped 20 of 22 shots from the Kodiaks to pick up his first win of the campaign.
Earlier in the week, Okotoks announced its leadership group for the 2022-23 campaign.
Spak, a third year Oilers forward, was named captain with Hellyer, Wolfenberg and 2002-born sniper Ty Yoder named alternate captains.
The Oilers are still in need of billet families in the community. If interested, contact billet co-ordinator Dawn LeMaistre at [email protected].
