A date with history has the Okotoks Bantam AA Oilers coming home with a new keepsake.
Behind its trademark resiliency, push back and unflappable goaltending Okotoks came away with the first Bantam AA provincial banner in program history after its 5-1 triumph over the hosts Olds Grizzlys on Sunday.
“Seeing the smiles on those kids’ faces, that made the whole year for me as a coach worth it,” said Oilers head coach Mike Glawson. “You hear the clichés the NHL or junior guys talk about being so beat up once playoffs end. I could see that in our guys too. There were guys dancing around in the dressing room and guys with ice packs on and bumps and bruises.
“It was all worth it.”
All those weeks of practices, long bus rides and overnight trips culminated in an unforgettable first for the club.
“It was a real big relief to be able to reach our goal that we set at the start of the year,” said Okotoks defenceman Dru Krebs. “And to have something real big to celebrate for being the best team in Alberta, was a big achievement for every player on the team.”
Just getting to provincials at the AA level is a feat in itself.
Okotoks hosted and won the South Division playoff tournament, edging out Lethbridge in a competitive final. From there, the squad won two straight to dispatch the Central Alberta Tigers in three games in the best-of-three South Central Alberta Hockey League championship series.
“I’ve been coaching in this league now for three years and I truly believe the South Division of the SCAHL is the toughest division in all of Alberta to come out of,” Glawson said. “Just seeing how tough the competition is, every year Cranbrook and Taber and Lethbridge are putting out high end teams.
“To get through those guys and then the top team in the North Division in a three-game series is extremely challenging.”
The Oilers had a somewhat inauspicious debut once on the provincial stage.
Okotoks opened the competition in a 1-1 tie with the Calgary Wranglers due largely to a 43-save effort from netminder Logan Heffron.
“We were very flat. In my personal opinion, my coaching staff’s opinion, it’s probably the worst game we played all year,” the coach added. “We still came out with a 1-1 tie.”
The team responded with a 6-2 romp over the St. Albert Comets to close out day one with Kai Uchacz scoring a pair along with single tallies from Easton Inglis, Jakob Mather, Jordan Prpich and Boogie Blackwater.
The Oilers then got caught taking a period off in a narrow 3-2 defeat to the host Grizzlys, in the first of two meetings between the league foes.
It wouldn’t end up costing them.
Okotoks booked its ticket to the gold medal game via a 2-0 shutout of the Fort McMurray Oil Barons. Goaltender Gage Alexander pitched the 28-save shutout with Mather and Uchacz providing the offence.
The rematch with Olds was next on the docket.
“We knew we let one slip away against Olds in the round-robin,” Glawson said. “When we walked into the dressing room to deliver the pre-game message, the music was off, every kid was head to toe in their full gear and everyone was sitting their staring at the floor.
“That was the most focused I’ve seen our group all year.”
This time the Oilers left no room for doubt.
Inglis, Uchacz, J.J. Pickell, Connor Poffenroth all found the back of the net before Alexander put an exclamation point on the 5-1 victory with his first ever goal on a rainbow shot from his own crease.
“We had one bad game going into the tournament and did that before during the South playoffs,” Alexander said. “Olds hadn’t had theirs until the final. We knew their weaknesses and took advantage of that.
“Everyone knew we had a job to do and everyone came out to play – the goal kind of just topped it off for us. We knew we had it in the bag after that. It was pretty special, I think I will remember that for the rest of my life.”
