Call it a moral victory or a teachable moment.
Okotoks’ back-to-back home losses to the North Division heavyweight Spruce Grove Saints and Fort McMurray Oil Barons on the weekend were measuring sticks for what it takes to be elite in the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
And for large spans, Okotoks proved it’s right there with them.
“These guys right now, after playing against Spruce and Fort Mac, they know they have a pretty good chance,” said Oilers head coach Tyler Deis. “They know they have to play a certain way. Our penalty kill has to be there, but they believe they have a chance of doing something pretty cool in the playoffs.
“Win or lose you want them to have that feeling in there when we go into the playoffs.”
Skating against the hottest team in the North and 14th ranked nationally, Okotoks for the most part took it to the Oil Barons Saturday at the Pason Centennial Arena, everywhere except where it counts most – the scoreboard. The Oilers dropped a 4-2 decision to the Barons.
Despite a strong start which saw Trey DeGraaf light the lamp on the powerplay, the MOB forced their way back in the middle frame through an even-strength tally from Dylan Rauh and powerplay marker through captain Brandon Ralph.
Okotoks pushed back in a major way in the final stanza, throwing 18 shots on net and levelling the score through DeGraaf’s 20th of the season.
The opportunistic visitors made it a short-lived draw as Toby Shattler scored on the following shift and Ralph added an empty-netter as the Oil Barons took two points in an even battle.
“I’m totally happy with the way that we played,” Deis said. “That’s a very good team over there, one of the top teams not just in our league, but the country. We were just as good or even better than them.
“I don’t know if we got the bounces or the outcome we deserved. If we play like that the majority of the time, we’re going to win a lot of games.”
The green-and-gold unleashed one of its best starts to a tilt all season when it put the Spruce Grove Saints on its heels through 20 minutes only to fall 5-2 in a seesaw affair Friday at the Pason. The Oil’s Jacob Bernard-Docker scored and set up Tanner Laderoute’s goal while Saints blueliner Garan Magnes paced the visitors with a two-goal effort.
“We had a great first and then in the second we kind of fell apart,” DeGraaf said. “These last two games we’ve had great starts and maybe we get satisfied with that and think the next period is going to be the same way. We have to work for it.”
Okotoks gave up three powerplay goals on five Saints opportunities.
The Oilers started the week allowing two shorthanded-goals in a 4-1 loss to the Calgary Canucks Jan. 18 at the Max Bell Arena.
The Oilers, still ranked number-one in the province with an 88 per cent rate on the penalty kill, are not accustomed to losing the special teams battle. They don’t plan on being that way again.
“The PK is something we take pride in as a team and it had been going awesome until this week,” DeGraaf said. “Maybe guys were getting a bit too complacent and thinking that since we have a good PK maybe we don’t have to work so hard.
“We can’t think that way. We want to be the best PK in the league.”
The three straight losses dropped the Oilers (27-14-5) into third place with 59 points, tied with the Calgary Canucks who own the regulation wins tiebreaker and boast a game in hand.
“We wanted to win all three, but (Fort Mac) was the only one of the three we were happy with the way we played,” DeGraaf said. “It wasn’t our best week, but we will be ready to go should we ever see these guys again in the playoffs.”
Okotoks played the front-end of a home-and-home with the Olds Grizzlys on Jan. 24 at Pason Centennial Arena with the return leg in the Grizzlys den on Jan. 28.
The Oilers then wrap up a busy January with a date in the big city versus the Calgary Mustangs on Jan. 31.
For more information go to okotoksoilers.ca
