It’s what every athlete wants, a chance to return the favour almost immediately.
Less than a week after seeing its opening weekend road trip spoiled in a resounding defeat to the Camrose Kodiaks, the Okotoks Oilers renew acquaintances with their long-time foes for its home opener on Friday.
“It’s got to make you mad. The way it happened in their barn on opening weekend,” said Oilers forward Danton Davis. “You’ve got to come back with a bad taste in your mouth.
“And I guarantee we will be ready to play next weekend.”
The Oil have all week to mull over a 6-1 defeat Saturday in the Bears Den. The team had started its campaign in promising form, eking out a 2-1 result in the league’s toughest building to play in – the Brooks Centennial Arena.
“That was a wakening for us,” Davis said of the Camrose contest. “We’ve got to change some things and get back to the drawing board for next weekend.”
Lesson one, take nothing for granted on game night.
Davis, a former member of the Kodiaks and a Camrose native, said the team should never be overlooked as one of the upper-echelon squads not only in the division, but across the province.
“They’re an organization you can never take for granted,” he said. “Us, Brooks and Camrose are teams that can bring it every year.
“You think they’re going to have a year off, but they have pretty good hockey clubs.”
The Bandits, meanwhile, head into Okotoks on the back-end of the two game opening homestand looking for some atonement in their own right.
Brooks, who trounced the Okotoks squad in exhibition earlier this month, don’t like losing and it’s something the three time league championships don’t do very often. “We know we can beat anyone. (Brooks) gave it to us the week before and I think they’re the best team in the South, everyone says it,” Davis added.
The opening homestand goes Sept. 23-24 at Pason Centennial Arena. Both games are 7 p.m. starts at Pason Centennial Arena.
It will be the first chance for Oilers fans to see what is a re-tooled roster with as many as eight freshman skaters in the lineup including a pair of 16-year-old prospects in slick blueliner Jacob Bernard-Docker and energetic forward Austin Wong.
Import forward Jamie Ramin from Michigan and Ontario product Nicholas Romero should also make their Oilers debuts this week.
News and Notes
Okotoks improved its record to 8-4 all-time in season openers with Friday’s win in Brooks.
The Oilers have been traditionally strong in their debuts on home ice. Okotoks boasts a 9-2 record in home openers with their only two losses coming in 2014 to the pesky Olds Grizzlys and in its inaugural season, 2005, to the Canucks.
