The hero on the Okotoks Junior A Oilers’ three-game road trip on the weekend didn’t get a single point or block even one shot.

However, Dale Dalton of Calgary Motor Coach out of Okotoks, kept the Oilers’ team bus on the road and the players made it to all three games in northern Alberta safely despite horrendous road conditions as a result of a December blizzard.

The Oilers left for their Friday night game at Lloydmintser at seven in the morning from the Centennial Arena in Okotoks.

Dale Dalton shows how he cleaned the windshield wipers during the Okotoks Junior A Oilers road trip to Lloydminster during the brutal storm on Friday. photo by Bruce Campbell

“It didn’t get real bad until we got to Bowden,” said Dalton, who has been driving for more than 50 years. “The snow got real sticky and we had to stop to clear the snow off the windshield wipers.

“You just have to drive to the weather conditions.”

The bus had to pull over on a few occasions to clear the windows.

Oilers head coach Garry VanHereweghe drove up on his own because he had an appointment Friday morning.

“The roads were very bad,” VanHereweghe said. “I would have much rather been on the bus than be on my own. The roads were as bad I have ever been on with all the blowing snow and ice… I often second-guessed myself whether I would ever get to Lloydminster.”

VanHereweghe kept in close contact with the bus throughout the trip, but the coach knew the Oilers were in good hands.

“Dale is totally committed to the kids and the team,” VanHereweghe said. “We feel really comfortable that we will get where we are going safely.”

The team safely made it to Sherwood Park, where they checked into a hotel before heading off to the Border City.

“When we got there, the guys (the Oilers) were telling me good job that kind of thing,” Dalton said. “They’re a good group of young men.”

The Oilers weren’t the only team heading north on Friday morning. Richard Kleibrink was driving three boys up for the Junior Men’s  Southern Alberta playdowns in Red Deer.

“We left Okotoks at 11 a.m. and didn’t get to Red Deer until 3:30 p.m.,” Kleibrink said. “It was terrible.”

He said the worst conditions were at Airdrie and at “Mallzac” (the new shopping centre at Balzac).

“Actually we had heard that part of the highway was closed, but it wasn’t,” Kleibrink said, who was driving a four-wheel drive vehicle. “So we just kept inching along.”

While Kleibrink was having a white-knuckle drive, his valuable cargo was somewhat oblivious to the conditions.

“They just watched a movie,” he said with a chuckle.

His wife Shannon showed the foresight of an Olympian. She beat the storm by driving to Edmonton on Thursday for this week’s Olympics qualifying curling tournament at Rexall Place.

A busy weekend of hoops for Holy Trinity Academy Knights basketball players was reduced to just one game due to the weather.

The  Holy Trinity Knights Senior girls’ basketball tournament turned out to be a one-game affair when all but one team pulled out Friday morning due to the weather.

The Wetaskiwin Sabres, who drove down Thursday night, was the lone team to make it. (They beat the host Knights 60-55 Friday afternoon).

There were tentative plans to have the nearby Highwood Mustangs come from High River to play Friday night, but that game was also cancelled as the roads between Okotoks and High River further worsened due to the snow.

The Holy Trinity Knights Senior boys’ team was scheduled to play a tournament in Ponoka, but opted not to make the trip.

“We were monitoring the weather and the road conditions all morning (Friday),” said Knights boys basketball coach Sam Aiello. “We had decided by 11 a.m. we weren’t going to go. We got a call about 11:30 (a.m.) telling us the tournament was cancelled.”

The Okotoks Bisons’ Heritage Junior B Hockey League game against the Airdrie Thunder Friday night in Airdrie was also cancelled.

Meanwhile, Dalton is ready to hit the road again.

Although he said the conditions were bad on Friday, he has seen worse.

“I have been in storms where if you turn on your headlights you can’t see, but if you turn them off, you can see the road,” the veteran driver said.

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