What better place to showcase your skills than your hometown.
Okotoks Oilers winger Danton Davis broke out of an eight-game scoreless streak with a four-goal explosion to propel his team to an 11-4 romp over the Drayton Valley Thunder to earn a 1-1 split at the Alberta Junior Hockey League Showcase in Camrose on Saturday.
“You’re ready to go for that one. You know family’s there, friends are there and it’s a nice place to have a big game like that,” said Davis, a Camrose product. “It’s definitely been a frustrating start for me. I can’t remember the last time I had a drought like that.
“You hear in slumps guys say work harder and shoot tighter and that’s kind of what I did.”
Davis wasn’t the only one pulling the strings in the 11-goal blitz.
Winger Matt McNair added his first career hat-trick to vault into top-spot in the league with 11 goals in nine games while linemates Colin O’Neill added one goal and four points and Trey Degraaf chipped in with three helpers. Freshman winger Keillan Olson produced four assists with Cooper Page, Jordie Lawson and Reece Soukoroff adding the other markers.
Joey Desrosiers picked up the win in goal for Okotoks in a 26-save effort.
“(Head coach James Poole) came in and talked to us before the game and said the focus has to be on offence, that’s how you’re going to win games,” Davis said. “The guys were a bit more motivated to create opportunities, getting pucks to the middle of the ice.
“There is a lot of skill up-front. When you work hard offensively and do things like that, pucks are going to go in.”
Pucks weren’t going in for the green-and-gold in its Showcase opener on Friday.
Okotoks fell 2-0 to the Bonnyville Pontiacs, failing to solve netminder Olivier Charest despite outshooting their North Division foes 31-24 in Camrose.
“We played one of our best defensive games of the season we just couldn’t capitalize or create much offence,” Davis said. “We didn’t give them much defensively. Usually if you limit a team like that to two goals you’ve got a pretty good chance of winning that night.
“I wouldn’t say we ran into a hot goalie. I think we threw a lot into his chest.”
Earning the 1-1 split and perhaps deserving a better fate, the Oilers took stock of a strong showing on the league’s biggest stage. The annual showcase featured all 16 teams in the loop as a platform for scouts representing Canadian and American collegiate programs.
“The young guys went up there and played like there wasn’t that much pressure on them,” said Oilers captain Connor Chambers. “There was some scouts there watching, but we had a pretty good weekend all in all.”
Following the weekend, the Oilers own the second best goal differential in the league, three skaters in the top-nine in league scoring (McNair, Degraaf and O’Neill) and boast the province’s most proficient power play with 15 goals and a staggering 37.5 per cent success rate.
“I think we’re just shooting the puck more and not trying to wait for that perfect shot and perfect play,” Chambers said. “We’re getting pucks to the net and getting guys crashing there. We had some success like that this weekend.”
As of Oct. 6, the Oilers (6-2-1) sit two points back of the division leading Camrose Kodiaks for top-spot in the South entering Thanksgiving weekend.
Okotoks has a golden opportunity to make ground when it hosts the Kodiaks on Saturday on the tail end of back-to-back contests with the basement dwelling Olds Grizzlys visiting on Friday. Both games are 7 p.m. puck-drops at Pason Centennial Arena.
“I think we’re going to continue to do well,” Chambers added. “We’ve got a couple big games coming up this week against Olds and Camrose. We’re at a good state right now. We like the group of guys we have and have some momentum in our game.”
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