It’s officially a dynasty in Okotoks.
The Carstar Okotoks Bisons won their third consecutive Heritage Junior Hockey League championship Saturday night in Sylvan Lake, bucking a trend of five straight wins by the home team in a 1-0 Game 6 triumph to take best-of-seven league final 4-2.
“This is the goal every year,” said Bisons captain Lucas Watkins. “It being my last year it was definitely the goal to finish off with a win again. Three in a row is a pretty hard thing to do and we’re pretty happy about it.”
Grady Nicholas, the HJHL Goalie of the Year, stepped up with a 33-save performance for his second straight shutout in the final and third overall in the postseason.
“He’s been amazing the last few games,” Watkins said. “He had a bit of a tough Game 4, it sucked for him a little bit, but he came up huge these last few games, played unreal and made a bunch of big saves and kept us in that game.
“He’s been our guy all year long and he showed that.”
Easton Dean notched his first point of the series in dramatic fashion, breaking the goalless deadlock off a turnover with just 14 seconds left in the second period, in what proved to be the game and series winner.
“When we had went up to Sylvan we got away from our game a little bit, wasn’t really sure what it was,” Watkins added. “But everyone was ready to go (in Game 6), we got pucks deep, moved our feet and our forecheck was a Bison forecheck.”
Seven Bisons have been part of all three championship runs: Watkins, alternate captains Brayden Kapty, Adam Kirkpatrick and Jake Snashall, wingers Scott Brown, Daniel Tainton and blueliner Kegan Law under the guidance of head coach Brad Cobb and assistant coach Trevor Bueckert.
“Seven of us are left from that first year and just being part of all three, we’ve led the way because we’ve all been there before and done it,” Watkins said. “That’s been our goal every year to win and we haven’t quite finished off the job yet, we want to get provincial gold this year too.”
Cobb has a three championships in as many seasons behind the Bisons bench.
“He’s had a huge impact,” Watkins said. “He’s just a great guy to be around, he makes it fun to be at the rink every day. He’s hard on us, for sure, but he loves to win.
“That’s huge when your coach wants to win just as bad as the players do.”
Six additional members of the team were part of last year’s squad and are repeat champions: Dean, Nicholas, Caden Scott, Avery Greig, Ethan MacIntyre and Kaleb Schuller.
Okotoks swept its 11 playoff games en route to the 2023 title.
They faced a stiffer test in the 2024 postseason with a competitive four-game series win over High River, a sweep of the Rocky Rams and a dogfight against the North Division kingpin Wranglers.
Sylvan Lake took both of its home games to twice even the series on Okotoks with a high-octane powerplay putting pressure on the two-time defending champions.
Okotoks answered with a suffocating 3-0 shutout in Game 5 Friday on home ice to tee up the chance to clinch the following night on the road.
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Eleven skaters are celebrating their first titles with the club, a group that includes Owen McFarlane, Seamus Garagan, Jady Shigehiro, Hunter Cobb, Trevor Bonham, Nolan Smith, Kaleb Brown, Jakob Semeniuk, Ethan Partaker, Dryden Harding and netminder Logan Maroni.
“It was a little sweeter this year because of the adversity,” Watkins added. “It’s the closest final series we’ve had in three years and it felt that much sweeter to put it away.”
Okotoks, 14-time HJHL champions, has now won three titles in a row on three occasions during its prolific tenure in the Jr. B loop, most recently taking four straight from 2011-14, along with a 2001-03 three-peat.
The team moves on as the sole HJHL representatives at the Hockey Alberta Junior B Provincial Championships.
The six-team tournament, also featuring the defending champion Wainwright Bisons, host North Peace Navigators, St. Albert Merchants, La Crete Lumber Barons and Calgary’s NWCAA Stampeders, runs April 3-7 in Peace River.
For more information, go to okotoksbisons.com.
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For more information, go to okotoksbisons.com.
