A quick turnaround from a rare defeat was just what the doctor ordered for the Bisons.
One night after dropping its season opener on Halloween the Okotoks Jr. B Bisons got immediate revenge the following afternoon and then some with a 9-3 romp over the Strathmore Wheatland Kings Sunday at the Murray Arena to earn a split from the first week of the HJHL regular season.
“It was a better effort, last night we lacked in the effort department,” said Bisons head coach Chris Beston. “It’s nice to see the team come together and rebound strongly. Our team gelled together today and came back with a better effort.
“(The bigger roster) gives you some energy as well as it holds the players accountable, they’ve got to earn their ice now and it kind of puts it back on them.”
With 25-player rosters the Bisons management get to mix the lineups extensively and with changes in the lineup came a dramatic change in fortune.
Wheaties forward Nolan Bailey opened the scoring on a bit of a broken play inside four minutes, but it was all Bisons from there in the home curtain raiser on Nov. 1.
Tyson Scott, the reigning HJHL Top Scorer and MVP, answered on a shot from distance 18 seconds later and netted his second of the frame on an extended powerplay to give Okotoks the lead.
First-year Bison Levi Young made it a two-goal lead, on a 5-on-3 advantage, jumping on a rebound and poking the puck into the yawning cage.
“The more time on the powerplay the better off we’re going to be,” Beston said. “We’ve been working on it here the last couple weeks so it was nice to actually put it to use.”
Goals from Austin O’Bray and Layne Sniher, the latter his first as a Bison, made it a 5-2 advantage through 40 minutes to tee up a memorable final frame.
Jakob Mather, a fleet-footed rookie forward, potted his first junior goal on a bar down shot from the rush, while playing as a defenceman no less.
“That was my first game on D in like four years,” Mather said. “Just keep things simple, you don’t want to do anything stupid that puts you in a bad spot because you’re used to not being there. Making the first pass good instead of just putting it towards someone, really getting it to someone.”
O’Bray netted his second of the game before the hostilities between the teams began to take over, with Okotoks goalie Devin Reagan locking horns with Strathmore’s Landen Brassard for the seldom-seen goalie fight. Young, who was already sitting on a goal and an assist, completed the Gordie Howe hat-trick with a donnybrook of his own on the other side of the rink.
“You can’t expect it not to, that was our sixth game in a row against them including exhibition,” Young said. “I think we’re both getting tired of playing each other.
“I was fighting in the corner and the goalies were at it too. Lots of people say with fighting that they don’t want it to be in, but I think it’s part of the game and we all like it.”
After the dust settled, Sniher – a key off-season addition who starred with the High River Flyers in 2019-20 – put an exclamation point on the result with a behind the legs deke and shot in front of goal.
O’Bray completed the hat-trick on a 2-on-1 break to round out the scoring.
“It’s been awesome, playing at home and being able to go to school, taking business,” said Young, who calls Foothills County home. “We practise a little later than you would want to, but at least you get to have your whole day to do stuff and it’s still super competitive.
“It’s nice to be playing and getting your mind off things.”
Strathmore took the season opener on home-ice on Halloween by a 5-4 score.
One bright spot for the herd was the play of its youth with nine first-year skaters in the lineup.
Rookie forwards Simon Smith-Burness, Daniel Tainton and Ivan Chtchadov, all Bow Mark Oilers graduates, scored in their first regular games with the hometown Bisons. Second-year forward Dylan Wenzel had the other Bisons' goal.
Jaycob Masciangelo notched the game-winner for Strathmore with Wacy Sandum, Garret Vander Ploeg, Isaac Benoit and Stran RedCrow also lighting the lamp for the home squad.
“It’s pretty cool that we’re all friends already, there’s not really any getting close period, we’re just able to come and just be buddies with everybody,” said Mather of Okotoks’ rookie class featuring a number of Okotoks minor hockey graduates. “Because it’s not like you’re new to everyone, you’re just new to a couple guys and playing in Okotoks we know some of the vets anyways.
“If we play like we did (Sunday) we will finish 19-1.”
The two teams will play twice before moving onto another cohort. Okotoks is back at home on Nov. 6, an 8 p.m. start at the Murray Arena, with the fourth matchup the following night in Strathmore.
The weekend set will mark the eighth time the teams have seen another since the start of exhibition.
“The end got a little nasty there, never seen a goalie fight before,” Mather said. “It was definitely a little rougher than I was expecting it to be. It’s getting chippy, they start beaking a lot and it’s both ways, some of the stuff people say is getting bad and the things people do, everyone is starting to look for cheapshots. Not looking forward to our eighth game against them.”
Facility restrictions remain in place at the Murray Arena with a maximum of 100 spectators allowed in the building.
For more information go to okotoksbisons.com.
