Sunday, December 23, 2007

The winning streak ends...

The Brooks Bandits ended the Oilers winning streak at 13 with a 5-2 victory in Brooks on Saturday night. After being held in check on Friday night in Okotoks, the Bandits Spencer McElhinney skated away with a hat trick, after a 2 goal second period. Braely Torris was in goal for the Oilers and took the loss even though the shots on goal were even at 29.
The Oilers are off now for the Christmas break, and don't return to the ice until January 5th in Sherwood Park where they start a 3 game road trip, before returning to the friendly Okotoks Centennial Arena on January 11, 2008.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Win 13 over the Brooks Bandits

A nippy Friday night still brought out over 800 fans to the Okotoks Centennial Arena to see the Oilers shutout the Bandits 3-0. The first period saw the Bandits attacking with brute force, outshooting and totally outplaying the Oilers, but with a powerplay goal by Carter Madsen, we took a 1-0 lead into the second. The Bandits were probably shaking their heads in bewildement and wondering what it would take to score.
The Oilers woke up in the second period, and with David Civitarese scoring shorthanded, took a 2-0 lead into the third.
The third period was our best period, but the only goal was an empty netter from Elliot Sheen.
I don't know who picks the game stars, but he certainly missed the boat on this one. With due respect to Carter Madson, goalie Brad Eidsness was a stand out, stopping all 32 shots and should have been named the game star.
The team is up to 13 straight wins with one more game in Brooks on Saturday night before the Christmas break. Wouldn't it be great to go into the break on a high of 14 wins?? Go Oilers Go !!!!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

The streak continues.

The Olds Grizzly were the latest victims of the Oilers winning streak tonight. The Olds team carried a 1-0 lead throughout most of the game. The Oilers had numerous chances on the powerplay to walk away with this game, but failed until the half way mark of the third. The teams third leading scorer Curtis Leinweber finally potted a PP goal to tie the score, and with just 2 minutes remaining in the game, Elliot Sheen accepted a pass from David Civitarese and won the game. Well, on the scoreboard anyways. Brad Eisness once again showed why he is one of the leagues premier goaltenders with a steady performance between the pipes.
Coach MacDonald juggled his lines for this game, with the most noticeable switch being Jesse Hudkins moving back to defence. and Dan Conacher going back in the lineup.
They say good teams find ways to win, and this Oilers team does just that. They have not played to their capabilities in the last 2 games. The streak is at 12 games with back to back games against the Bandits this weekend and then the Christmas break. Can they extend it to 14 games?? I know, one game at a time. Can they make it lucky 13?

Top 15 in Canada, Yahoo !!!!!

The Okotoks Oilers have made the top 15 in Junior Hockey this week. The CJAHL announces the top 15 in the country every Monday AM, and this week, for the first time in Oiler's history, we are ranked. Being #14 in the country is a major accomplishment, and after being "honorable mention" the past few weeks, it's good to see the name listed. Being on an 11 game winning streak certainly helped. So congrats to the Oilers. Lets see them climb up to the top in the rankings in the weeks to come.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Some raves, and stats...

Here we sit at 11 wins in a row. Not all easy wins at that, as proof of last nights O/T win at home against the Canmore Eagles. Not sure what the Oilers record was for consecutive wins, but I am sure this string of 11 is a record. Even the Kodiaks best winning streak this season is only 9 games.

DID YOU KNOW;
We have the second best power play in the league. Only the Spruce Grove Saints are better.
We have two players (Elliot Sheen and Justin Daigle) in the top 20 in scoring. Two other players are in the next 20. (Curtis and Carter)
We have scored the most goals (151) of any team in our division.
Our 27-10 record this year breaks down to 14-3 at home and 13-7 away. Compare this to last years 20-17 record at this time, 11-5 at home and 9-12 away.

I strongly believe we have a championship team this year. We certainly need the crowd support, so come on out and support the Oilers.

Back 2 Back wins against Canmore

It's always fun to catch the team playing back to back games against a division rival. First up was a match in Canmore on Friday, Dec 14th. The game turned into a rout as Canmore was not in this from the drop of the puck and our Oilers brought their A game along. Elliot Sheen lead the way with 2 goals and while the shots were close ( 39-31 for us), the game certainly was not as the final read 6 to 1 for us. A little roughness showed it's ugly head as Canmore could do nothing more than intimidate our guys. A great way to start this home and home series. Their streak is now 10 straight wins. Can they stretch it to 11 on Saturday night at home?


Saturday, Dec 15th.
I guess what most coaches look for with back to back games is at least a split, but with the Oilers winning the first game, we had "sweep" on our minds. This game turned out to be much tougher than the last, as the Eagles stepped their play up a notch or 2. A fairly even first period saw the clubs tied at 1 a piece. The second period belonged to the Canmore Eagles, but they could not pull away from the Oilers great scoring prowlness. After the Eagles pulled ahead 4-3 with 2:46 left in the game, the Oilers crashed the Eagles net on a smart full speed dash to the goal that resulted in the puck crossing the line and tieing up the game. Goal to David Civitarese .

The overtime was very exciting, as we had a number of close in chances, and even gave the Eagles a great opportunity to win the game, but Torris stopped that attempt. But with just 9 seconds left in the first overtime period, Justin Daigle potted the winner after a give away by the Eagles. A great finish to a game we could have easily lost. The boys find ways of winning, and the momentum is at 11 wins and climbing. Good going guys. Keep it up.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Oilers roll over Dragons, Dec 12

A small midweek crowd was treated to the Oilers 9th win in a roll, posting a 5 to 3 defeat over the Drumheller Dragons. The Dragons ran into penalty trouble in the first and Okotoks took advantage of the leagues 2nd best power play on PP goals by Zack MacKinnon and Jesse Hudkins to take a 2-0 lead into the second. All told, the power play was 4 for 8 and was the main reason for the win. Drumheller looked disorganized on defence most of the night and the Oilers penned them into their own end on many occasions.
The score actually flatter the Dragons, as they scored two late goals to make it look respectable. Afterall, they were coming off of a 10-3 drubbing at home the night before.
Good to see Zack and Jess get 2 goal games. We are on a roll, and look like the team to beat in the league right now. If we could only get more fans out :)

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Oilers rant....

OK, so what is this blog all about. Well, the old Okotoks Oilers website had a bulletin board where people could leave your thoughts and have good discussions. The new website for the oilers at http://www.okotoksoilers.com/ kind of sucks. They dropped the bulletin board and don't keep the site updated. So this is where this blog comes in.
Got a rant or a rave. Leave it here. Just want to make a comment on your favorite players? This is for you. So spread the word. Lets see where this all goes :)

The starting point

I would think the starting point of this blog about our Okotoks Oilers would be the start of the season, but seeing that today is December 9, 2007 and the season is half over, I will start with game 34, Oilers vrs. the Bonnyville Pontiacs at the Okotoks Centennial Arena in Okotoks.

With just over 800 people in attendance on this cold night, and the boys coming off an exciting comeback win against the Dragons the night before, the scene was set to overtake Drumheller in the standings and be on the tail of the league leading Camrose Oilers.

After giving up a quick goal to the Pontiacs, the guys settled in and scored the next 3, taking a 3 to 1 lead into the second. Bonneville got the only goal in the second , but the Oilers put it away in the 3rd with 2 goals, one being an empty net goal.