The Okotoks Junior A Oilers wanted to go into the Christmas break on a positive note.
Mission accomplished.
The Oilers recorded their 10th victory in a row with a 4-3 overtime win over the Olds Grizzlys on Dec. 21 at the Olds Sports Complex.
After falling behind 1-0 in the first and being outshot 20-8 by the hosts, the Oilers rebounded with a dominant effort in the second.
Forward Nolan Huysmans evened the score with a goal seven minutes into the middle frame. Ben Gamache drew the only assist on the tying marker.
Two minutes later, unlikely goal-scorer Brad Ryan put the Oilers up by one with just his third of the year.
Ryan would notch yet another point two minutes after that with an assist on Jonathan Turk’s powerplay goal. Michael Brown had the second assist as the Oilers grabbed a 3-1 lead.
“We found our game in the second period. We really started to create offensively through some hard work,” said Oilers coach James Poole.
With the Oilers’ 10th consecutive victory seemingly in the bag, the Grizzlys were not quite ready to oblige.
Olds’ forwards Corbin Karl and Zane Jones each beat Okotoks goalie Michael Matyas in the span of five minutes in the latter half of the third to send the game into overtime.
Jones’ goal came with only 66 seconds left in the game and forced the Oilers to play a little extra time before their extended break.
At 3:49 of the overtime, Oilers standout rookie Houston Hazelaar sent his team home winners with an unassisted tally.
“I thought we dominated the overtime with a lot of scoring chances,” Poole said.
Coincidentally, it was Hazelaar’s 10th of the season that propelled the Oilers to their 10th straight victory.
Hazelaar’s performance thus far this season has been quite remarkable, Poole pointed out, especially for a first-year guy.
“His numbers may not say it but he is an extremely valuable player to us,” Poole said. “We’re very fortunate to have him on our team.”
Matyas improved his record to an eye-popping 17-4-0 with the win stopping 34 of 37 Grizzlys’ shots.
Coming off back-to-back wins with Michael Tadjdeh in goal, the Oilers did not skip a beat with Matyas.
“We have two number one goalies, which is a great problem to have,” said Poole. “We can put either of them in any situation and feel very comfortable that they’re going to give us a good chance to win.”
Former Oiler Riley Parker took the loss for Olds, allowing four goals on 23 shots. Okotoks originally traded Parker to Camrose for future considerations, but the Kodiaks then shipped Parker to the Grizzlys.
It was a good mood all-around for the South Division leaders as the Oilers’ leading-scorer Kyle Reynolds was honoured with a plaque from the team last Thursday for his record-setting achievements.
With his 68th career goal as an Oiler against Drumheller on Nov. 26, Reynolds moved into first on the all-time list of Okotoks goal scorers passing John McInnis who previously held the record.
“We wanted to do something to recognize him and create a little bit of tradition within our organization,” Poole explained. “We’re a young organization but we want to start to recognize some of those feats and with what Kyle’s done, he’s going to have some records that are going to be tough to beat.”
That was not the only Oiler record to fall that night. Reynolds’ three-point effort also gave him the all-time mark for most career points with 135, breaking Okotoks native Chris Duszynski’s former mark of 132 points.
Duszynski is presently playing for the Norwich College Cadets of the East Coast Athletic Conference where he has four goals and seven assists in seven games.
The Oilers will return home following the Christmas break for a home date with Okotoks resident Joel Paiement and the Calgary Canucks on Friday, Jan. 7 at the Centennial Arena. Puck drop will be at 7 p.m.
