Blackfalds Bulldogs Bonnyville Pontiacs Brooks Bandits Calgary Canucks Camrose Kodiaks Canmore Eagles Drayton Valley Thunder Drumheller Dragons Fort McMurray Oil Barons Grande Prairie Storm Lloydminster Bobcats Okotoks Oilers Olds Grizzlys Sherwood Park Crusaders Spruce Grove Saints Whitecourt Wolverines

VIDEO: Oilers erase four-goal deficit, but fall 6-5 in shootout to Brooks

OKOTOKS, AB (September 3, 2022) – The Okotoks Oilers trailed 4-0 less than halfway through the game, but stormed back to force overtime with the visiting Brooks Bandits on Saturday night, before dropping a 6-5 decision in a three-round shootout in front of a crowd of 611 at Centennial Arena.

The shootout loss drops the Oilers’ preseason record to 2-0-1 as they prepare for the rematch on Sunday afternoon in Brooks at 4:00 PM.

Despite outshooting the Bandits 7-5 in the first, the Oilers found themselves down 2-0 after twenty minutes thanks in no small part to four first period penalty kills. Shots off the rush from Nathan Free at 8:39 and Aiden Fink at 18:12 gave Brooks the early advantage.

In the second, Hudson Malinoski scored from a sharp angle at 2:49 before Brendan Mairs scored on a net front scramble at 8:31 to take a commanding 4-0 lead.

But the Oilers responded less than a minute later when Brody Spencer-Ha (Foothills County, AB) tipped home a net front feed from Jackson Rowland to get the Oilers on the board. Less than a minute after that, on a two-man breakway, Ty Yoder (Tofield, AB) fed a pass across to Jagger Tapper (Calgary, AB), who one-timed home his second of the preseason to make it 4-2.

The Oilers pressed in the third as well, getting to within one when Austin Reschny (Macklin, SK) scored on a rebound at 9:10 to make it a 4-3 game. Brooks got one back 34 seconds later on a Hunter Wallace one-timer, but Hunter Sawka (Cochrane, AB) then scored just 50 seconds after that off the rush to make it 5-4. Then, at the 13:28 mark, Dean Spak (Calgary, AB) scored on a bar-down wrister from the high slot to tie the game 5-5.

After a fiery overtime frame, the Bandits got goals in the extra frame from Free and Fink to take the extra preseason point.

The Oilers were outshot 26-24 in the game, going 1 for 4 on the power play and 5 for 8 on the penalty kill, with Parker Sawka (Cochrane, AB) making 21 saves in the game.

-30-