Bisons seek to charm Snakes in playoff clash

What’s become a playoff rite of passage is once again on the docket.

For the fourth-straight Heritage Junior Hockey League post-season the second-seed Okotoks Jr. B Bisons lock horns with Coaldale starting Thursday after the Copperheads convincingly advanced out of the first-round survivor series with Medicine Hat.

“We’re both pretty sound organizations and you always have to beat the best teams to get through,” said Copperheads head coach Derek Wiest. “That’s why us and Okotoks always match up. Even through the minor hockey days and right into junior now, it’s always been a big rivalry.”

Coaldale, known predominantly as a physically ferocious club over the years, is much more of a speed and skill team in 2016-17. Okotoks, for its part, is again a skilled group, also boasting a considerable improvement in the team toughness department.

“We know what we’ve got to do, we’ve played them (all those) times this year and know what to look for,” said Bisons alternate captain Connor Tudor. “We know how to dig deep and find a way to get the job done.

“We’re very similar teams. We both grind down low with lots of shots on net. We’ve got to take advantage of our scoring chances against them and capitalize whenever we can because you know if they get a chance in the slot they’re going to put it in.”

With Okotoks idle since the end of the regular season as the second seed in the South Division, the Copperheads swept the Cubs in the best-of-three opening round series bookended by a 9-1 rout Saturday in the Snake Pit.

There was positively little to choose from the clubs in their four regular season meetings.

Okotoks and Coaldale each won two games, each picking up a victory at home and on the road. Coaldale owns a 17-16 margin of victory over the four matchups while Okotoks came away triumphant in the two most recent meetings.

“They’re a tough squad to play against,” Tudor said. “They move the puck really quick up the ice on the transition. Our d-men have to be very active, very aware. We have to have that high forward sitting almost on top of the blueline because they come out of the zone with so much speed.”

The herd need no reminders on what the Snakes are capable of doing.

Coaldale has ended the Bisons past two seasons. The Copperheads swept Okotoks in the South final in 2015 en route to its first league champion and last winter edged the Bisons in six games in a terrific second-round set.

“For both teams it comes down to discipline and special teams,” Wiest said. “You don’t want to be spending all your time in the box, they’ve got a potent powerplay and some very skilled guys. It comes down to who wants the games a little more because both teams are pretty even.”

The best-of-seven series opens Thursday (Feb. 16) at Okotoks’ Murray Arena at 8:15 p.m.

The other South Division semifinal features the top-ranked Cochrane Generals and the fifth-seed Banff Academy Bears.

In the North, the first-versus-four matchup sees the Mountainview Colts and Blackfalds Wranglers clash while the second-and-third-seed Airdrie Thunder and Red Deer Vipers do battle.

For more information on the Bisons go to okotoksbisons.com