It was a return to dominant home ice form for the Bisons on the weekend.
The Carstar Okotoks Bisons skated to a pair of impressive triumphs over tough South Division teams in knocking off the Coaldale Copperheads 7-0 and usurping the Cochrane Generals by a 5-3 mark in Heritage Junior Hockey League action.
On Friday, first-year Bisons netminder Dylan Walker made 28 saves for his first shutout and second win with his hometown team.
Easton Dean paced the offence with a hat trick, Jake Snashall, Ethan MacIntyre, Sam Callahan and McCallum Bakken also found the back of the net with blueliner Caden Scott chipping in with three assists.
From smooth sailing to a resilient finish, the weekend capper was a different route to the same two-point result for the herd.
Cochrane’s Christopher Ugbaja scored twice in the first nine minutes with Okotoks scoring two on the powerplay late in the opening frame through Callahan and Dean.
MacIntyre, Callahan and Jady Shigehiro added even-strength markers as Okotoks took the game over through the final 40 minutes. The Bisons had five points from defencemen, led by two-assist performances from Caelan Bodnarchuk and Hunter Cobb.
Walker made 19 saves in the victory. Through three games, the 20-year-old has posted a .939 save percentage and 1.44 goals against average.
Okotoks, three-time defending league champions, sits third in the South Division standings behind Medicine Hat and Wheatland, the two remaining undefeated teams.
The Bisons travel north for their first road trip of the season this weekend with jaunts to Mountainview and Ponoka on Oct. 4-5.
The next home game is Oct. 11 against Wheatland.
For more information, go to okotoksbisons.com.
