This weekend it is official — Okotoks is Hometown Hockey.
Sportsnet is bringing its travelling Hometown Hockey show to Big Rock Country this weekend, and it’s fitting.
Virtually every weekend from September to June, is Hometown Hockey in Okotoks.
The entire community was engrossed when the Okotoks Oilers went on their record-breaking winning-streak last season, earning a trip to their first Alberta Junior Hockey League final.
In that opening game of the finals against the Spruce Grove Saints, Okotoks hockey fans — and the entire nation — mourned as one in tribute to the tragedy involving the Humboldt Broncos.
That’s the kind of hold Canada’s national game has on the community and the entire country.
Paul Henderson’s famous 1972 game-winning goal over the Russians is entrenched in Canadian history as the Plains of Abraham, and confederation in 1867.
Canada was truly one solitude when that famous goal was scored. And Okotoks has created hockey history of its own.
The Oilers were a mainstay long before the Junior A product came to town.
Talk with veteran hockey guys like Okotoks’ Jim Bearcat Murray and he’ll tell you a High River Flyers and Oilers matchup was akin to the Calgary Flames vs. Edmonton Oilers of the 1980s.
And he ought to know.
Bearcat was the trainer for the 1986 Flames when they shocked the Oilers on Perry Berezan’s legendary shot via Steve Smith.
And of course, the old potlicker Murray, drank from Lord Stanley’s Cup in 1989.
Hockey is now for everyone. Okotoks boasts the third-largest female hockey system in the province, behind only Calgary and Edmonton.
So enjoy Hometown Hockey this weekend, but remember in Okotoks another celebration of hockey is just around the corner.
