The pieces didn’t quite fit for the Bow Mark Oilers to continue their winning ways. Okotoks (9-8-3) saw its four-game winning streak snapped with a pair of losses on home ice to the Calgary Buffaloes and Grande Peace Storm in the parity-ridden Alberta Midget Hockey League. “Being in the South Division if you lose five or six games you could find yourselves like we are, close to the bottom,” said Bow Mark Oilers head coach Ken Plaquin. “Overall, we’re good. It’s a great group of kids, they practise really well, get along unbelievably well. If we can find a way to take what we do in practice and turn it consistently into what we do in games, we’ll be really good.” In a Chrysler Division clash, the Calgary Buffaloes got past Okotoks by a 4-1 score on Friday. “Right now the Buffaloes are a more mature hockey team where they stick to their gameplan for almost the entire game,” the coach added. “We have sections of the game where we play really well and sections where we don’t and they’re extremely good at capitalizing on those times where we’re not playing the way we should.” Dylan James scored on the powerplay and shorthanded to give the visitors a 2-0 lead at the first intermission. Kyle Bray got Okotoks right back into the game with a middle period even strength tally only to see Justin Ross and Carter King bulge the twine in the final stanza. It’s the second time in two meetings the Buffaloes have got the better of the Oil. “In the second period we took it to them and maybe even outplayed them for most of that,” Plaquin said. “And then in the third we weren’t ready for them again and they keep sticking to it and we just don’t win. We find ways to lose sometimes.” The Oilers put in a solid effort to close the weekend in a 4-2 Sunday loss to the Storm. Edge Lambert’s second period brace had the visitors up two heading into the third period. Okotoks battled back with some offence from the defence as blueliners Brayden Kapty and Anson McMaster scored to level the game at deuces. Nolan Flint restored the Storm advantage and Lambert completed the hat-trick with an empty-netter. “That was actually overall a pretty good game,” the coach said. “We had to kill off a couple bad timing penalties and did really well doing that. We stuck to it for the most part, we had trouble scoring until the third and then we had a great pushback. “I was quite confident we were going to pull out a win. We had one defensive breakdown where a player was allowed to walk out of the corner untouched.” McMaster, who has been on a couple stints with the WHL’s Kootenay Ice, continues to shine on the back-end while alternate captain Alaister Standen has been a force of late in the forwards ranks. “Alaister Standen is still playing fantastic, he’s been one of our better forwards the last three weeks,” Plaquin said. “Anson McMaster had a good weekend, a lot of guys played well, just as a team it didn’t really click together for some reason. A lot of our defencemen played really well.” The Oilers are on the road this weekend in Sherwood Park and Edmonton on Dec. 8-9. The next home game is Dec. 14 against the CAC Gregg Distributors. “We’ve got a few games here before the Mac’s tournament we’re going to use as a tune-up,” the coach said. “And just keep building towards making sure we have a great Mac’s tournament and making sure we make it into the playoffs which is ultimately all you really want to do. “Once you’re in the playoffs it’s anybody’s game.”
