The Carstar Okotoks Bisons answered the bell with a double digit goal outburst.
Okotoks (27-5-1) skated to a 10-0 rout over the visiting Airdrie Thunder Friday night at the Murray Arena to respond emphatically to a rare two-loss weekend in the Heritage Junior Hockey League.
“If you’re not winning, you’re learning and we learned,” said Bisons head coach Brad Cobb. “We do have it in us to rebound quickly and get back on track after a couple of losses.
“I don’t think this team has lost two in a row for a long time so for that to happen in one weekend, I hate to say it, but probably a positive thing before the playoffs.”
Okotoks saw its 13-game winning streak snapped the previous weekend with a home loss to Cochrane and road defeat in Medicine Hat.
“It was a good wake-up check for us,” said Cobb.
“It was good to reset the team and have a good week practice and get back to what we do well and that’s utilizing everybody. We started getting a little bit selfish the last couple of weeks and that made it tough for us.”
On Friday, Okotoks got to work early with Easton Dean scoring 11 seconds into the game and leading scorer Sam Callahan scoring two first period goals en route to his fourth hat trick of the season.
“That’s one of the best response games we’ve played all year,” said Callahan. “Every line just kept rolling throughout the game and we came out with what we wanted and we’re looking forward to (Saturday) in Coaldale to send a message.
“Our game has been progressing well throughout the year, but it was the little details that we needed to clean up a bit, especially against better teams, and we did that and came out with the win.”
Ty Russell, Adam Kirkpatrick and Jakob Semeniuk tallied in the middle stanza and in the third period, Callahan completed the hat trick with Owen McFarlane netting his first goal of the season, Zephyr Laplante netting his 20th and captain Jake Snashall rounding out the attack with a shorthanded marker.
“It feels really good,” said Callahan, who leads the team with 25 goals. “I was getting lots of chances, but they weren’t going in, so it felt good to get those ones in the net and it will hopefully keep building.”
Avery Greig and McCallum Bakken each chipped in with three assists as six Bisons finished with multi-point performances.
“It’s going to be really good for the group,” the coach added. “Because every line contributed as well, not just a couple of guys, but every line put a dash up on the board for us. That’s what is most important for us, collectively everybody got some points tonight.”
Workhorse Bisons starter Connor White continued to shine with a 22-save shutout, his second of the season, to improve to 17-3-1.
Impressively, Okotoks equalled the 10-goal mark with a 10-4 triumph Saturday night in Coaldale.
Fourteen skaters registered a point with Dean posting two goals, Kirkpatrick, Laplante. Semeniuk, Bakken, Seamus Garagan, Kegan Law, Caden Scott and Brandon Jarman also scoring in the blowout.
There are just five regular season games left for Okotoks with a fierce three-horse race to clinch tops in the Southern Division on deck.
Okotoks welcomes the Agra Risk Wheatland Kings to close the month on Jan. 31 at the Murray Arena.
The Bisons are four points up on Wheatland and five ahead of Medicine Hat.
For more information, go to okotoksbisons.com.
