Carstar Okotoks Bisons 9, Sylvan Lake Wranglers 8 (Final SO)
The Carstar Okotoks Bisons needed a shootout to finish off the Sylvan Lake Wranglers at Diamond Valley Pressure Services Arena on Friday, outlasting the home side 9-8 in a wide-open, 17-goal affair that went to a five-minute overtime and then to the skills competition.
Sylvan Lake struck first, with Aidan Hack opening the scoring at 4:11 and Toran Schofer adding another at 11:04. Zephyr Laplante answered twice for Okotoks — a power-play goal at 12:10 and another at 12:41 — to make it 2-2 after the opening 20 minutes.
The second period turned into a track meet: Nathan Flanagan opened it at 3:51 for Okotoks, Avery Shadbolt answered on the power play for Sylvan Lake at 6:52, Kyler Beechinor restored Sylvan Lake’s lead at 7:05, Flanagan tied it again at 11:02, Cameron Olson put Sylvan Lake up on the power play at 12:53, Tucker Woroschuk extended it at 16:18, and Seamus Garagan and Karson Ledieu traded late goals in the final two minutes of the frame. Sylvan Lake outscored Okotoks 5-3 in the middle period to take an 7-5 lead into the third.
Okotoks answered with two from Gustav Rustebakke (8:41, 13:54) sandwiched around a Shadbolt goal for Sylvan Lake, and Jakob Semeniuk added a short-handed goal with 1:44 left to force overtime at 8-8. Neither side scored in the five-minute extra frame, sending the game to a shootout, where Semeniuk and Flanagan both converted for Okotoks while Sylvan Lake was stopped on both its attempts, giving the Bisons the extra point on a 9-8 final.
Okotoks goaltender Shane Ford made 39 saves on 47 shots through regulation and overtime; Sylvan Lake’s Ryder Cyrenne stopped 32 of 40.