Although they put forth a strong effort, the Lloydminster Bobcats suffered the same result as Thursday night, a 4-2 loss.
Battling the CJHL’s 3rd best team (in this week’s CJHL rankings), the Okotoks Oilers in Okotoks, the Bobcats played one of their best games of the season, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough.
Early in the first, the ‘Cats managed to get on the board first, something they had not done in their previous five games.
Just about six minutes into the contest, Lloydminster’s own, Daniel Hilsendager took a shot from the point which found its way past Ben Howard and into the net for a 1-0 Bobcats lead.
For the Bobcats the lead only lasted seven minutes. After Hilsendager threw a big hit in the Okotoks’ corner, the Oilers came back the other way and Dylan Holloway beat Pierce Diamond on a partial breakaway to tie the score.
The score remained 1-1 until the middle frame, where the Oilers were able to strike early in the period.
Breaking in on an odd-man rush, Quinn Olson fed Austin Wong, who one-timed the puck by Diamond to give Okotoks their first lead of the night.
Entering the third, still 2-1, it took the Oilers just a 52 second span to put the Bobcats in trouble.
Nearly five minutes into the final regulation frame, Wong found the back of the net for a second time, before Olson increased the lead to 4-1 just 52 seconds after.
Despite the two quick goals, the Bobcats continued to try and fight back. Lloydminster had multiple close calls to get back in the game, and finally did beat Howard again with just 1:39 remaining. Zach Webb put home a loose puck for his 6th goal of the season to pull the Bobcats within two.
In the end, that would be as close as Lloydminster would get though, despite outshooting Okotoks 12-8 in the final period.
Ben Howard made 27 saves to pick up the win in goal, while Diamond stopped 28 shots in the loss.
Neither team was able to score on the power-play with the Bobcats going 0 for 6 and the Oilers finishing 0 for 3.
Lloydminster will finish up their four game southern-Alberta road trip Sunday afternoon in Calgary.
Puck drop between the Canucks and Bobcats is scheduled fro 2:30.