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Bisons charge past Flyers

Round-one of the battle of the Foothills was a decidedly one-sided affair.
The Okotoks Bisons celebrate Spencer Barlow-Lakusta’s second goal in the team’s 5-1 win over the High River Flyers on Nov. 15 at the Bob Snodgrass Recplex.
The Okotoks Bisons celebrate Spencer Barlow-Lakusta’s second goal in the team’s 5-1 win over the High River Flyers on Nov. 15 at the Bob Snodgrass Recplex.

Round-one of the battle of the Foothills was a decidedly one-sided affair.

The Okotoks Bisons survived an early onslaught from the host High River Flyers and rode a four-goal second period to a 5-1 victory in the first meeting of the Heritage Junior Hockey League foes, Sunday at the Bob Snodgrass Recplex.

“If you can get past that first period, period and a half you can build some momentum and click with your line,” said Bison Spencer Barlow-Lakusta. “Just being able to survive that first period and get shots. Coach (Mike Hannigan) said keep it simple out there in the second period, get shots and good things will happen and they definitely did.”

The Flyers came out with their trademark intensity to start the contest, registering the first five of six shots and dominating the visitors territorially.

It changed on a dime with a little offence from the defence. Smooth-skating rearguard Caleb Eefting rushed the puck up ice and saw his rebound corralled by teammate Luke Loomer who saw his spinning shot find its way into the back of the net midway through the period.

Okotoks took control in the middle frame, easily its most dominant period of the season with four goals and a 22-1 advantage on the shot-clock in the stanza.

Barlow-Lakusta scored his first of two in three minutes by chipping one in on the powerplay. The overage centre then unleashed a howitzer water-bottle shot over Flyer Tyler Fornwald to make it a three-goal advantage.

“Darren (Bordt) just teed it right up for me and I just hoped to god it hit the net,” Barlow-Lakusta said. “That was our best period of play. We really clicked as a team and every line was rolling.”

Rookie Tyler Rohl added to the offensive onslaught when he used ample time and space in the slot on the man-advantage to tickle the twine. Newcomer Michael Janz rounded out the scoring late in the period, registering Okotoks’ third special teams tally of the night.

High River got a measure of consolation late when defenceman Kody Briggs’ seeing eye point-shot went up and over Okotoks’ Draven Rees in goal.

Still, High River managed 17 shots on goal and were held to a mere five shots over the final 40 minutes.

“It’s such a rivalry. Okotoks is usually with the upper hand in the standings, but it’s always a huge game for them,” said Bisons blueliner Matthew Pronchuk. “In the first period our d-men, myself included, were having a hard time getting good gap and keeping them to the wall and we just started stepping up a little more and playing more aggressive at the redline and making sure we weren’t turning pucks over.”

It was a homecoming of sorts for Pronchuk, a High River native and key cog on the Flyers from 2012-14 before playing with the Fernie Ghostriders last year.

“I have a couple friends on there. It’s not like they were out there gunning for me or anything. It’s more just circumstances brought me to (Okotoks) and they understand that,” said Pronchuk, who joined the Bisons in conjunction with a move to Calgary. “It’s always fun to come back. I grew up in High River and playing in the old barn was nice.”

The Bisons opened the challenging weekend slate playing uncharacteristically flat hockey.

Okotoks found itself down 5-1 early to the division leading Cochrane Generals on Friday before making a game of it in an 8-6 defeat. The herd then came from behind to edge out the Red Deer Vipers 6-5 to earn its first shootout win of the campaign on Saturday. Taylor McNeill inked the game winner in the sixth round of shooters.

Next up, Okotoks (11-4) hits the road for a meeting with the Three Hills Thrashers on Nov. 21 before hosting the Medicine Hat Cubs for a Nov. 22 matinee. Puck-drop for the Southern Division tilt is 1:15 p.m. at Murray Arena.

For more information on the team visit okotoksbisons.com


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]
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