An up-and-down Thanksgiving weekend saw the Bisons earn a third and a first.
The Carstar Okotoks Bisons (6-2-0) extended their South Division win streak to three games with a convincing 5-2 win over Strathmore’s Agra Risk Wheatland Kings followed by a 4-0 defeat to the Red Deer Vipers the following for the Heritage Junior Hockey League club’s first road loss of the campaign.
“There’s lots of bad blood and it’s probably our new big rivalry, we owed them one so it was really good to get the win,” said Bisons alternate captain Caden Scott.
“Strathmore has got a lot of returning guys, it’s almost the exact same team, so I think it’s going to be tighter than ever. All of the teams are close and we’re going to have to bring our game every night because every team brings their A-game with us.”
On Friday, Okotoks scored three on the man advantage with Scott tallying twice on the powerplay and Adam Kirkpatrick adding the other special teams marker. Kaleb Brown and Jady Shigehiro added the other goals with Dylan Walker stopping 19 shots for his fifth win.
It’s the first meeting since the Wheat Kings got the better of the Bisons in preseason action last month.
“We always use that as a little bit of fuel,” said Bisons head coach Brad Cobb. “We don’t like losing and we don’t do it very often, so we take it pretty personally when we lose and usually come back with a really good effort the next time we see those teams so we did that tonight.”
The Vipers took a bite out of the Bisons the following night in central Alberta.
Red Deer goalie Austin Deck made 34 saves to shut Okotoks out for the first time this season.
At 6-2, the Bisons are two points back of Medicine Hat in a loaded South Division.
“I think we’re really building a good squad,” said Scott.
“With the D-zone, and trying to figure that out, a good defence makes a good offence. We’re learning every day and working hard at practice and the last couple of weekends we’ve really started to carry that into games.”
Kegan Law, a fourth-year Bison, returned to the lineup over the weekend to bolster a strong blueline,
“We’ve got a lot of new faces,” Scott said. “And we just got Lawsy back so that’s huge for us. We’re coming along and we’re super tight back there, kind of a team within a team.”
Cobb said he’s encouraged by what he’s seen through the first month-plus of the 2024-25 season as Okotoks bids for a fourth-straight league championship.
“It’s been really good for us,” said Cobb. “It’s been a good learning experience with 13 new guys in the lineup. We’ve had some really good practices just learning the new structure for those guys.
“I like a lot of what we’re seeing, we’ve got good pace and the team is really coming together, that room is the most important thing at the end of the day, and we’ve got a good room.”
Okotoks’ next two dates, versus Cochrane and Medicine Hat on Oct. 18-19, are away from Murray Arena. The next home date for the herd is on Oct. 25 against Coaldale.
For more information, go to okotoksbisons.com.
