DE WINTON, AB (September 11, 2021) ““ The Okotoks Oilers ended their preseason with a bang on Saturday night, getting two-goal outbursts from Rieger Lorenz (Calgary, AB) and Bowden Singleton (Calgary, AB) en route to a 7-2 win over the Brooks Bandits at Scott Seaman Sports Rink in De Winton.
The Oilers complete the exhibition schedule with a 4-1 record.
Goaltender Parker Sawka (Cochrane, AB) stole the show with a 42-save performance, including several breakaway and odd-man rush stops from an extremely offensively active Brooks squad. The Oilers were outshot 44-21 in the game.
Rieger Lorenz (Calgary, AB) opened the scoring for the second straight game, jamming home a shot from the right side of the Brooks net to give Okotoks the early 1-0 lead. With Brooks pressing on a power play, rookie forward Austin Reschny (Macklin, SK) found space down the right side and fired in a wrist shot to double the lead shorthanded.
Just over two minutes later, the Oilers were given their first power play of the game, and converted on a net front scramble that led to Lorenz”™s second tally. Brooks responded four minutes after that when Harrison Ballard scored on a rebound, but Bowden Singleton fired home a spinning wrister at the 18:53 mark on a second Oiler power play to make it 4-1 Oilers after twenty minutes.
In the second, TJ Hughes scored on a rebound for Brooks at 14:10 to draw his team within two, but Jackson Rowland (Calgary, AB) deflected home a cross-crease pass at 17:36 to make it 5-2 Okotoks.
In the third, Brendan Boyle (Lake Country, B.C.) intercepted a Brooks pass at the neutral zone, sped into the offensive end, and lasered a wrist shot home for a 6-2 Okotoks lead at the 13:27 mark. Singleton added his second of the game less than a minute later on a power play rebound to notch the 7-2 final score, with the Oilers going a perfect 3 for 3 on the man advantage and 8 for 9 on the penalty kill.
The Oilers will open their regular season schedule next weekend with back to back games in Camrose on Friday and Saturday at 7 PM, before returning to Pason Centennial Arena for their home opener on Friday, September 24th.