An Okotoks native picked the ideal night to have one of the best games of his Heritage Junior B Hockey League career on the weekend. It just happened to be against his hometown team.
Okotoks resident Charles Abbott scored two goals for the High River Flyers in their 6-5 victory over the Okotoks Bisons Friday in High River.
“This is a great feeling, especially being from Okotoks,” Abbott said. ”I know a few guys over there — they are great guys — so this means a lot to me.”
The loss dropped the Bisons’ record to 1-1 in the young season, while the Flyers are 1-0.
Abbott, the Flyers’ captain, admitted High River has struggled against the Bisons in the past. It was just the Bisons’ third loss to the Flyers — other than exhibition — since High River joined the league in 2004-05.
“To be honest, I think it was always been a mental thing,” Abbott said. “There have been some big changes here, and to win our first game is big.”
While losing to the Flyers is about as much fun for a Bison as getting hit over the head by an American satellite, Okotoks captain Chase Fallis said the team has to use it as a stepping stone to another successful season.
“It’s only the second game of the season, and it’s just one loss. There is still plenty of time left in the season,” Fallis said. “Mike (Bisons coach Mike Hannigan) told us that maybe this was a good time for this to happen — we can learn from our mistakes.”
The Flyers took advantage of their specialty teams when Cade Lamb scored a powerplay goal 12 minutes into the game to make it 1-0.
High River would go up 2-0 when Abbott scored a shorthanded goal with two minutes left in the period. However, the Bisons would score on that powerplay 41 second later when Okotoks’ Jesse Lyall slipped the puck past High River goalie Myles Dunne to make it 2-1 after 20 minutes.
The Bisons would tie the game at 2-2 when Fallis rifled in a wristshot six minutes into the second stanza.
High River regained the lead when Keaton Lackten — who was a Bison just the day before — scored to give the Flyers a 3-2 lead.
The Bisons tied the game when Lane Wagner beat Dunne.
Okotoks roared into the dressing room with momentum fully on their side after Bison Jeremy Smith took a pass from Dylan Kendrick just inside the red line and came in and beat Dunne with one second left in the second period to give the Bisons a 4-3 lead.
However, Flyers coach Earle Grasley wasn’t going to let the goal get his team down.
“To win the first game of the season sends a message that we are here to win,” Grasley said. “We have a lot of areas to clean up, but we were down going into the third period and I told the guys ‘If we win, this period we win this game.’
“And we did.”
The Flyers rattled off three unanswered goals to take 6-4 lead, one of them by Abbott.
The Bisons closed the gap to 6-5 when Phil Dillon scored with 36 seconds remaining in the period. While Okotoks buzzed the net in the final seconds, the Bisons were unable to get the puck in the net to force overtime. Bison goalie Dylan Bachmeier took the loss in net. He stopped 16 of 22 shots he faced.
The Bisons are back in action when they take on the Blackfalds Wranglers Friday at 8 p.m. at the Murray Arena in Okotoks. They hit the road to take on the Coaldale Copperheads Sunday afternoon.
