Last second heroics give Bisons series stranglehold

It ain’t over until it’s over.

Connor Tudor forced overtime with a tying goal with two seconds on the clock to set the stage for Bradley Whitehead’s game-winner in the extra session as the Okotoks Bisons stormed back for a 3-2 triumph in Sunday’s Game 3 at Murray Arena to take a 3-0 stranglehold over the Coaldale Copperheads in the second round playoff series.

“(Josh) McCulloch came up with the puck, turned and fired it in my general direction,” Tudor said. “I tried to do everything I could to get the angle, get the deflection if you want to call it that. I swiped at it and luck of the draw it went over his shoulder and tied the game.”

Okotoks then wisely opted to keep its foot on the ignition, foregoing the decision to flood the rink and give both teams an extended break between periods.

“Coaches were discussing do we take the flood or do we run with the first 10 minutes and then take the flood?” Tudor said. “We thought, scoring with two seconds on the clock we might as well roll with that momentum and it absolutely carried us through.”

An unlikely source provided the final touch on the comeback.

On the opening shift of the overtime, blueliner Bradley Whitehead took a feed from Robbie McLean at the point and let one rip 38 seconds into the period to match his regular season scoring in one full swoop.

“I saw the puck just go straight in. Top left was completely open,” Whitehead said. “It’s phenomenal. That makes us 3-and-0 going back to Coaldale to hopefully take her home.”

The seesaw Heritage Junior Hockey League swing game could easily have gone the other way.

Okotoks opened the scoring through Jaret Bordt quickly answered by Copperheads blueliner Austin Huculak in the opening frame.

Coaldale went into pole position early in the third period when Calvin Swanson turned on the jets, got behind the Okotoks defence and deposited a breakaway tally.

At the other end of the ice, Dillan Kelly proved a tough nut to crack. The 6-foot-2 netminder turned away wave after wave, including a partial breakaway by Spencer Bender and a pair of Kyle Becker opportunities near the blue paint.

“We were getting the chances in the second period and just weren’t burying them,” Bender said. “We came into the room and said keep doing your job, put the pucks on net and good things will happen.”

Bender was at the centre of the team’s efforts the previous night.

The 21-year-old winger notched the game winner in overtime as Okotoks eclipsed Coaldale by a 4-3 count in the Snake Pit.

Tudor, McCulloch and captain Mark McLeod provided the other markers.

“We just kept a level head,” Bender said. “We stuck to our game plan, made sure our d-zone was our first priority.”

Okotoks took the series opener 6-5 at home on Feb. 16.

Tudor scored a pair, McCulloch, Nicholas Murrell, Michael Stach and Ryan McLean all added singles, the latter of the game winning variety.

Bison sophomore Matthew McDonald was the star of the show, stopping 53 of 58 shots.

“It’s a battle this whole series,” Tudor said. “We’re two very similar teams, we play the grind, deep game and it’s just a matter of who wants it more. The boys dug deep and found a way.

“The whole series we’ve been trading goals back and forth, they score one, we get one, they score one, we get one. When we get that last one in the third period, we’re finding a way to generate all that momentum back up and riding it into overtime.”

Okotoks can wrap up the series in the minimum four games on Feb. 21 in the Snake Pit.

That’s no easy feat for visitors in a regular scenario, let alone against a team fighting for its playoff lives.

“The fourth game is always the hardest to win,” Bender said. “We’ve got to come prepared like any other game whether it’s 2-2, 1-0, the start of the series.

“Just prepare the way we always have and hopefully get the same result.”

For full results from the series go to okotoksbisons.com