Skip to content

Oilers slide to fourth place finish

CANMORE — The battle for second went down to the last second.
Okotoks Oilers forward Trey DeGraaf fires a shot on Canmore Eagles netminder Thomas Davis during the team’ s 5-4 loss on March 4 at the Canmore Rec Centre.
Okotoks Oilers forward Trey DeGraaf fires a shot on Canmore Eagles netminder Thomas Davis during the team’ s 5-4 loss on March 4 at the Canmore Rec Centre.

CANMORE — The battle for second went down to the last second.

The Okotoks Oilers furious pushback ran out of time as the Canmore Eagles hung on for a thrilling 5-4 victory in the regular-season finale Saturday in the Rockies to grab the second-seed in the South Division while pushing the green-and-gold down to the fourth spot.

“It could be nerves, but at the end of the day everyone has to come to play right off the hop,” said Oilers winger Tanner Laderoute. “We can’t wait until the dying seconds of the third period to make a push.”

The scenario was quite simple for both clubs. A regulation win for the Eagles would be enough for them to take second while Okotoks needed to pick up one point to sew up the number-two seed.

Playing in front of a packed house at the Canmore Recreation Centre, the hosts came out with the early jump.

Okotokian and Eagles captain Matt Forchuk opened the scoring within the first five minutes. Nolan Thompson quickly responded for the visitors with a snipe in the middle of the slot only to see Forchuk knock in his second of the period on the powerplay late in the opening frame.

“We just didn’t have enough urgency,” said Oilers alternate captain Carson Beers. “They came out with way more urgency than we did at the start of the game.”

Special teams continued to play a part in proceedings in a penalty-filled middle frame.

Logan Ferguson made it a two-goal advantage on the man-advantage. On three consecutive powerplays Okotoks crept back through an individual effort from Laderoute. A late penalty for cross-checking then got the dangerous Eagles powerplay unit back on the ice and Braden Saretsky found the back of the net on a seeing-eye point shot to make it a 4-2 contest.

“We just need to be better,” said Oilers head coach Tyler Deis of the team’s shorthanded effort. “Our switches weren’t there, we didn’t block shots, we weren’t in the right position.

“To be honest with you, the penalty kill was what let us down tonight.”

Colin Pauls whacked in a rebound early in the third period to seemingly put the game out of reach.

Someone forgot to tell the Oilers the game was over.

With the goalie pulled and the extra-attacker on the ice, the Oilers quickly chipped away as Carter Huber and Beers tallied 22 seconds apart to really make it interesting.

Jordan Xavier briefly looked to have drawn the club even, but the centre’s goal with two minutes left was quickly waved off due to a high-stick.

That’s as close as they would get as Thomas Davis shut the door from there.

Canmore earned a playoff date with the seventh-seed Olds Grizzlys while Okotoks faces a much more challenging task on paper in a first-round battle with the Camrose Kodiaks.

Following the result, Deis downplayed the importance of playoff seeding.

“It doesn’t matter to me. The seventh-place team to the first place team, we all have a shot to win,” Deis said. “If the guys believe, I believe we can go pretty far here.

“It’s irrelevant where we’re at. We play until the end.”

Okotoks wrapped up its home schedule the night prior.

In front of a season high 1,546 fans the home team put on an offensive clinic in a 10-1 romp over the Calgary Mustangs.

Laderoute and Xavier each scored twice, Beers, Jordie Lawson, Austin Wong, Trey DeGraaf, Cory Santoro all found the back of the net while defenceman Riley Mathies finished an assist shy of the Gordie Howe hat-trick. Rookie Kyle Gordon also chipped in with four assists.

“All of our lines were clicking. We found some chemistry with some different combinations,” Huber said. “We tried to get lots of pucks on net, with 52 shots on goal. That was the main goal.”

That goal was buoyed by a big assist from the spectators.

Pason was packed to the rafters with a season high attendance of boisterous support.

“That’s the biggest crowd I’ve played in front of. For me, that was energy boosting right from the start,” Huber said “To play in front of fans like that you’ve got to show well.

“We’ve been working hard this year getting in the community and trying to build up a good rapport and we think we have a good fan base.”

Okotoks opens its best-of-five playoff set with Camrose on home-ice on March 9 at Pason Centennial Arena.

For full schedule information go to okotoksoilers.ca


Remy Greer

About the Author: Remy Greer

Remy Greer is the assistant editor and sports reporter for westernwheel.ca and the Western Wheel newspaper. For story tips contact [email protected]
Read more



Comments

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks