Skip to content

Oilers set to vault into regular season

Hockey: Okotoks opens AJHL 2020-21 campaign on Nov. 13

The date is set, but at this point it’s a blind date for the Okotoks Oilers.

The Alberta Junior Hockey League announced its 2020-21 regular season will get underway on Nov. 13 on the heels of nearly a month of exhibition action in the provincial loop.

“We’re really excited about it,” said Oilers captain Louis Jamernik. “We were kind of hoping to get going earlier and we had heard Dec. 1… we had no idea when, we were expecting later on and we kind of just found out through Twitter. We’ve been practising what we’ve needed to do leading up to that point, so nothing changes in terms of preparation we’re doing everything already.”

Okotoks’ opposition to start the season has not yet been released. The league will follow a divisional format with members of the South and North Division playing only in-division competition.

It will be a welcome change to have games count in the standings.

“Two points is a big deal for us in every single game,” Jamernik said. “We don’t take anything lightly and even our exhibition games we try to treat them like regular season games to keep the pace and competition up.”

Okotoks improved to 4-3-2 in exhibition with a trio of wins over the weekend over the Olds Grizzlys.

“Definitely need to clean up the d-zone is our number one priority, we’re working on it and doing a lot of practices to clean that up,” Jamernik said. “Secondly, it’s transitions and just being faster off the transitions, those are the two things we need to work and are working on in practice.”

The Oilers were competitive with the Brooks Bandits in the previous exhibition series, but ultimately picked up just one win, three losses and two overtime defeats.

“A team like Olds, they’re not the same team as Brooks so that kind of us an opportunity, there were a lot more powerplays for us which was good so we got to work on that and got to play a lot in their zone,” Jamernik said. “It was good for us to get a little confidence. But even Olds kind of exposed our d-zone and that’s why it’s good to play different levels and different types of teams because that’s where you can fine-tune things like that.”

A Zane Kindrachuk hat-trick paced the Oilers to the 8-4 triumph on Nov. 3 in Okotoks. Jamernik chipped in with four helpers with rookie Rieger Lorenz and defenceman Eric Parker finishing with three assist nights.

On Halloween in Olds, Jack Works scored twice, Dylan James added a goal and an assist with Gibb Coady and Bowden Singleton also tickling the twine. Brady Parker made 28 saves on 30 shots for his second win of pre-season.

“Singleton, back-to-back games with goals, James has been putting up points, Lorenz, (Logan) Magowan has been playing off the charts in terms of d-zone and keeping it simple,” Jamernik said. “All of our new guys are playing unreal,  it’s pretty cool.”

Okotoks opened the weekend with a comeback 4-2 triumph over the Grizzlys on home-ice.

Jamernik, Singleton, Cale Sanders and Carson Dyck provided the offence while Parker Sawka made 21 saves on 23 shots in his first action of the pre-season.

Both Parker and Sawka missed the first four games of exhibition with Western Hockey League veterans Taylor Gauthier and Jack McNaughton filling in temporarily on a loan basis.

“Having the two WHL goalies was really cool,” the captain added. “But just to have our normal group, we have so much trust in both of our goalies and it gave us a little extra second win there so it was good to have them back.”

The AJHL also announced its decision on the showcase weekend, the end of season date and the playoff format would be announced at a later date.

Due to the facility restrictions in place, the maximum spectators allowed at Pason Centennial Arena remains at 100.

The Oilers are not offering up season tickets or general admission at this point, subject to change.

All AJHL regular season games will be broadcast on the HockeyTV.com platform.

For more information go to okotoksoilers.ca


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]
Read more



Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks