TUESDAY - OKOTOKS TIES SERIES

A REAL ROLLER COASTER

Fans at the Okotoks Centennial Arena were treated to the quite the back and forth affair between the Oilers and the Olds Grizzlys last night.

The Oilers' Conrad Smith would open the scoring at 6:28 while Chris Duszynski would also score in the first at 15:39.

In the 2nd the Grizzlys would weather an Okotoks shooting gallery early on - then with 5 minutes remaining would respond with one of their own.

At 15:34 Shadoe Stoodley would score his 7th of the post-season.

Then, on the same Oilers Power Play, both Jordan Kwas and Nic Bourgeois would score beautiful short-handed markers in less than a minutes time - giving the Grizzlys a 3-2 lead heading into the 3rd.

As anticipated the Oilers came out of the gate in the final frame with an aggressive offensive front - a front that would draw a Bourgeois interference penalty and a Power Play that would prove detrimental to the Grizzlys' lead as with just 9 seconds left in the Man-Advantage Brandon Hoogenboom would score to tie the game at 7:08.

Then just over 3 minutes after the game's tieing goal Scott Keevin would score, then Corbin Knight would score short-handed not two minutes after that.

With his team facing the same 2 goal deficit they worked so hard climb out of in the 2nd - Grizzlys Head Coach Kevin Hasselberg called a time out to try to rally the troops with 2 minutes left in the game.

Hasselberg pulled Goaltender Marc Boulanger for the extra attacker in the process.

And after a breif span of Grizzlys' pressure - Okotoks' Knight would break out and pot an empty net goal to ice the cake, making it 6-3 with 1:11 left to go in the game all but ensuring the series would head back to Olds tied at a game a piece.

After the loss Hasselberg was asked about about the game including both team's efforts in Game Two.

"I didn't think Okotoks was a whole lot different, we didn't put the same preasure on them that we did last night [Game 1] and for some reason we came up a little bit flat to start." Hasselberg said. "We got the bench going in the second period and you could really see where when we played our game it was very hard for Okotoks to generate anything."

"We got to figure out how to get off this roller coaster ride and start playing consistent hockey," he said, "I really think we gave the win away tonight."

The Grizzlys and Oilers will now meet up the Olds Sportscomplex for game 3 on Wednesday, then game 4 on Thursday.

SCORING SUMMARY

Okotoks Oilers at 6:28 - Conrad Smith from Cody Dion and Jeff Barrett

Okotoks Oilers at 15:39 - Chris Duszynski from Quinn Sproule

PERIOD 2

Olds Grizzlys at 15:34 - Shadoe Stoodley (unassisted)

Olds Grizzlys at 17:16 (SH) - Nicholas Bourgeois (unassisted)

Olds Grizzlys at 18:09 (SH) - Jordan Kwas from Mitchell Maxwell

PERIOD 3

Okotoks Oilers at 7:08 (PP) - Brandon Hoogenboom from Jesse Hudkins and John McInnis

Okotoks Oilers at 10:51 - Scott Keeven from Chris Duszynski

Okotoks Oilers at 12:05 (SH) - Corban Knight from Nicholas Bell

Okotoks Oilers at 18:49 (EN) - Corban Knight (unassisted)

GAME NOTES
Nic Bourgeois scored for the third game in a row for Olds; Curtis deBruyn was held pointless for the first time since the Grizzlys Game 1 loss to Drumheller in Round 1; Okotoks' Corbin Knight scored his 5th and 6th goals of the playoffs, which at post time put him into a 4-way tie for 2nd place, behind only Shadoe Stoodly of the Grizzly's who scored his 7th; Olds went 0-5 with the PP, Okotoks went 1 for 6; Marc Boulanger made 28 saves earning a .848 Save Percentage; Sean Cahill made his first post-season appearance earning a .906 Save Percentage; Shadoe Stoodley and Cody Dion engaged in a spirited bout with 46 seconds left in the game - I call it a draw.

INTERESTING TO NOTE
In all of three of the post-season loses for the Olds Grizzlys - they've gone 0 for 5 with the Power Play.

IN THIS BLOGGERS OPINION
I have yet to see any team out-class the Olds Grizzlys. You know, a team that when you look back at the game, you could say "We tried our best, played our best and they still beat us" - in this Bloggers Opinion, a team like that doesn't exist. I have however seen several teams outwork the Grizzlys. Olds is one of the best teams in the league and when they play to the best of their abilities along with consistent hard team work, shift after shift, there's no doubt in my mind they can beat anyone - on any night. Last night the Grizzlys did not play their best hockey - well other than for about a 5 minute span in the second period and I guess that could be a building block for the team heading into Wednesday's Game 3.

Also if I could give props to the Oilers' Corbin Knight - not that I thought he had an outstanding game but more so how he closed it out. So many times you'll see guys blast shots into an empty net from five feet away and throw their hands in the air like they just scored the most important goal of the game. Not Knight, he glided the puck into the empty net, with no force and without a "take that" attitude - after which he kept his hands down and skated over to his team to celebrate the win. His attitude showed that he knew the goal was nothing more than an insurance marker on a game won by several other goals and hard work in a win that would only tie a playoff series at one a piece. It was nice to see.