Eight might not be enough given the current form of the herd.
The Carstar Okotoks Bisons added consecutive victories over the Strathmore Wheatland Kings and Rocky Rams on back-to-back nights last weekend to improve to 12-1 in the Heritage Junior Hockey League while pushing their winning streak to eight games.
“It’s just playing our game and not getting caught up with the refs (and discipline),” said Bisons forward Seamus Garagan after Friday’s win over Strathmore. “Doing what we’re supposed to do, playing our roles is what works for us.”
Friday at the Murray Arena, Okotoks scored four straight and held off a late surge from the Wheaties for the 4-2 victory.
Garagan opened the scoring with under six minutes left in the middle stanza.
“I chipped it around my D-man, got on my horse, went as fast as I could, shook a guy off me and looked at the net,” Garagan said. “I saw how deep I was, saw an opening and just shot it right in that (near side) pocket beside his head there.”
Rookie centre Jakob Semeniuk doubled the advantage in short order with Jake Snashall poking in a third tally late in the frame as Okotoks’ forecheck took the game over.
“It was not our best game, slow start, but once we got going, we got going,” Garagan said. “Our forecheck is key, when we’re forechecking hard F-1, hard F-2, playing how we’re supposed to play, defensively, positionally, cycling, snapping pucks around, it just starts clicking for us.”
Scott Brown made it a four-goal advantage in the third period with Strathmore breaking Grady Nicholas’ shutout bid with two late tallies on the powerplay through Joel Romano and Eric Castro.
Okotoks made it eight straight on Saturday in Rocky Mountain House.
Semeniuk and Snashall scored twice to lead the visitors to the 6-4 result.
Adam Kirkpatrick added a goal and an assist with linemate Brayden Kapty tallying the other marker and captain Lucas Watkins registering a game-high three assists. Nicholas had 14 saves for his 10th win of the season.
The Bisons are on the road this weekend, with a stop in Ponoka on Nov. 10.
The next home date is Nov. 17 versus the second-place Medicine Hat Cubs.
For more information, go to okotoksbisons.com.
