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Saints outlast Oilers to take AJHL championship

The Okotoks Oilers historic season ended without the storybook finish.
Spruce Grove Saints captain Josh Harris celebrates after winning the AJHL championship in five games over the Okotoks Oilers on April 20 at Pason Centennial Arena.
Spruce Grove Saints captain Josh Harris celebrates after winning the AJHL championship in five games over the Okotoks Oilers on April 20 at Pason Centennial Arena.

The Okotoks Oilers historic season ended without the storybook finish.

The Spruce Grove Saints erased a third-period deficit to edge the Oilers 3-2 in Game 5 of the Alberta Junior Hockey League final Friday at Pason Centennial Arena to clinch the best-of-seven set and claim their third championship in the past five seasons.

"They're an organization that has been dominating this league for a while," said Oilers head coach Tyler Deis. "We knew getting through the South we would have to get through Brooks and getting through the North you have to get through Spruce. That's two organizations who've dominated the league for a decade.

"For us as an organization that hasn't been here, we definitely as players, as coaches and as an organization learned from those teams that have been there before, what it takes to win. What we've gained here with our young team is tough experience."

In Game 5, Jacob Bernard-Docker opened the scoring with a powerplay marker in the second period answered seven minutes later by T.J. Lloyd's snapshot on the man advantage to produce the 1-1 scoreline after 40 minutes.

Carson Beers restored the Oilers lead 2:35 into the final frame only to have Spruce Grove's Chase Olsen even the score two minutes later on the rush. The Saints took their first lead when captain Josh Harris whacked in a rebound from a mad scramble in front of Okotoks' Riley Morris with 13:12 left in regulation in what held up as the winner.

Harris, the MVP of the championship series, had two game winning goals and one game-tying goal to force overtime as a clutch performer in the final.

"I needed to step up. I'm an important piece of the team at times, the team kept pushing and eventually it paid off," Harris said. "All year long we've been saying our third period is our best period, to do whatever we have to do to either comeback or hold on, we did a very good job."

Spruce Grove managed three third period comeback victories in the series, all three of them on the road against an Oilers team with a propensity for closing out games.

"The theme of the series, maybe even the playoffs a little bit for us was just not being able to hold onto leads," said Oilers captain Carter Huber. "For whatever reason whenever we got up we seemed to give them a chance to come back into it.

"We couldn't expect to keep doing that and advance."

Three of the five games in the series were decided by one goal, the first two of which went to overtime in a best-of-seven that was closer than the five-game triumph would indicate.

"It was a hard fought series, really evenly matched teams," Huber said. "First two games went to overtime, didn't go our way, but we felt we were right there as a team the whole time.

"We were pretty optimistic we were going to be able to come back here. It wasn't meant to be, but I'm proud of the guys for how we played."

Spruce Grove, who went 12-1 in the AJHL playoffs, marches on to the Doyle Cup versus the Wenatchee Wild, the BCHL champions. The winner of the series moves on to the RBC Cup in Chilliwack.

"It could have gone either way, it really could have," said Saints head coach Bram Stephen. "We felt that each game was going to be like that and you come with what is your bread and butter, what you consider as your base and fundamentals.

"At times they certainly were better than us, at times I felt we were better than them and it could have been any way."

For Okotoks, the team is left to reflect on a historic 2017-18 featuring a first trip to the league final, a new franchise record in wins while setting a new benchmark in the AJHL with 24 straight victories to close the regular season.

"This season has been unbelievable. We've never been in a league final before, everything is positive," Deis said. "They battled hard in the regular season, in playoffs we got through Brooks and had the league final with Spruce. I think the sky is the limit for the organization."

The league final lowered the curtain on the junior careers of a half-dozen stalwarts of the Oilers program.

Morris graduates as the franchise wins leader in goal, Beers moves on as the all-time assists and games played holder, Huber and Tanner Laderoute capped their junior careers as top scorers with commitments to North Dakota and Minnesota-Duluth, respectively. Blueliners Kylor Wall and Nick Blankenburg made huge impacts on both ends of the ice in their only season with the green-and-gold.

"There are a lot of guys there who put a lot of years into the organization," Deis said. "We feel like with the step that we're making here, they're pioneers of getting us to that elite program in not just the (AJHL), but in Canada.

"Whenever you lose there is disappointment, but they gave it everything they had, battled right to the end and it's awesome to see."


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]
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