Okotoks Oilers find the edge in playoff opener

The 1,062-day wait was worth its weight in Green and Gold. 

The Okotoks Oilers marked their return to playoff hockey for the first time in nearly three years with an impressive 4-1 victory over the Blackfalds Bulldogs to take Game 1 of the AJHL first round series, March 4 at Pason Centennial Arena. 

“There’s not a whole lot of playoff experience in the room, but the little we do have we tell the boys, ‘Biggest thing is short memory,’” said Oilers alternate captain Ethan Jamernik, one of two Okotoks skaters in the lineup with AJHL playoff experience along with blueliner Riley Bodnarchuk.  

“When it comes to after the game, short memory. If you didn’t like your shift, go do something about it.” 

Blackfalds, making its playoff debut as a first-year franchise, carried the play through the first 15 minutes with Jack McNaughton standing tall on Okotoks’ last line of defence. 

“We know they’re an older lineup so we know they know what playoff hockey is like,” Jamernik said. “So, we were expecting the jump and if we had some jitters, we got those out within those first 10 minutes.” 

At the other end of the ice, the Oilers looked to get in the grill of Bulldogs netminder Jackson Glassford, crashing the net early and often. 

The home team would open the scoring on a double-deflection with Nolan Flint and Jamernik getting a piece of Bodnarchuk’s point shot and the veteran forward getting the last touch. 

“That’s our gameplan, just get guys to the net,” Jamernik said. “The whole idea is to get traffic, looking at this goalie, we’ve got to get bodies in front of him. 

“You see guys like that who get emotional and try to take advantage of that. I think we got under his skin there early.” 

In the middle stanza, special teams told the tale. 

Okotoks couldn’t cash in on a four-minute powerplay, including an extended 5-on-3 advantage, in the early going.  

And the Bulldogs would even the score on the penalty kill with Jason Siedem finding the back of the net on a partial breakaway midway through the period. 

Turnabout was fair play in the third period with the Oilers finding success on the powerplay. 

Rookie defenceman Kade Turner fired a shot through a screen into the back of the net just 68 seconds into the frame. 

“The powerplay was struggling a little bit and we were just trying to get shots on net and get the goalie moving,” said Turner, a 2003-born blueliner from Calgary. “(Bodnarchuk) made a good play over to me there and I saw a little bit of room and walked in. 

“That was exciting, the atmosphere in the rink was exciting being in playoffs here.” 

Turner, one of 17 skaters making his playoff debut for the Oilers, said the rookie-laden squad was able to break it into one shift at a time, one period at a time segments. 

Bowden Singleton added a highlight reel breakaway tally off a neutral zone turnover with fellow rookie forward Brett Huxley icing the result via the empty-netter to seal the deal in the series opener. 

“The goal of the game was to lock it down and go for that zero,” Turner said. “And I think that’s what we did.”

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McNaughton made 26 saves to pick up the victory with Okotoks playing a strong defensive third period with the lead. 

“The biggest part of that is McNaughton,” Jamernik said. “He’s got to be our best player every night and, as you could see, tonight he was our best player.  

“He’s consistently been our best player and we’ve got to play strong for him. We get the bodies in front to help us just the littlest bit and he’s got us, we know he’s got us.” 

Game 2 is back at Pason on March 5 with the Oilers expecting nothing less than a strong pushback performance from the visitors. 

“They’re going to come hard,” Turner said. “We’ve just got to keep it simple again and focus on the D-zone.” 

Oilers versus Bulldogs series  

Game 1: Bulldogs at Oilers. March 4. Oilers win 4-1 

Game 2: Bulldogs at Oilers. March 5. 

Game 3: Oilers at Bulldogs. March 8  

Game 4: Oilers at Bulldogs. March 9 

*Game 5: Bulldogs at Oilers. March 11 

*Game 6: Oilers at Bulldogs. March 13  

*Game 7: Bulldogs at Oilers. March 15