Tuesday night is shaping up to be a massive playoff contest in Okotoks.
The Okotoks Oilers and Brooks Bandits take to the ice at Centennial Arenas for Game 3 of the BCHL Alberta Division semifinal with the Green and Gold returning home with a series split of the best-of-seven playoff set.
“It’s huge, any time you go to Brooks and split a series, you’re happy,” said Oilers alternate captain Brett Huxley. “We’re coming back to our rink, our fans so it really energizes the boys and we’re ready to go.”
In Game 2, Okotoks handed Brooks its first loss on home ice in over a year, snapping a 14-game losing streak to the Bandits on Saturday.
Huxley scored twice with Jackson Rowland, Dean Spak and Sam Huck finding the back of the net in the road triumph. Christian Green made 23 saves for his fourth playoff win in five starts.
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Brooks took the series opener 4-0 with netminder Johnny Hicks posting a 43-save shutout.
“We built off our first game, we took a lot of positives from that even though it was a loss,” said Huxley. “When we got that first goal (in Game 2), we kept building off it, gave us momentum and we never looked back.”
Okotoks was able to frustrate the top-seed Bandits with a 13-1 edge in powerplays in Game 2 after a 3-3 split the night prior.
Special teams will continue to be a massive factor in the best-of-seven set.
“It goes back to managing emotions and staying out of the rough stuff,” Huxley added. “And trying to get more powerplays.
“They can capitalize on their powerplay so we’re doing everything we can to stay out of the box and if we do get a penalty, we have guys that are unbelievable killers so we don’t really have any issues there.”
Game 4 is Wednesday, April 24 at 7 p.m. at Centennial Arenas.
The Oilers have a fan bus in place for fans to take in Game 5 in Brooks on Friday, April 26. The bus departs at 4:45 p.m and it’s a $50 cost to get a seat.
Game day tickets and fan bus ticket information can be found at tickets.okotoksoilers.com.
Series schedule
Game 1: April 19, Oilers at Bandits. Brooks wins 4-0
Game 2: April 20, Oilers at Bandits. Okotoks wins 5-2
Game 3: April 23, Bandits at Oilers.
Game 4: April 24, Bandits at Oilers.
Game 5: April 26, Oilers at Bandits.
Game 6: April 28, Bandits at Oilers.
Game 7: April 30, Oilers at Bandits.
*All games are 7 p.m. starts
