The Okotoks Oilers will probably have a quiet bus ride home full of reflections after their 8-2 game-five loss to the Bandits in Brooks tonight (April 26) during the best-of-seven second round BCHL playoff series.

The Green and Gold will now need to win in game six in Okotoks with Brooks leading 3-2 in the series after tonight. Oilers will get to play the game in front of the Green Army to help keep their season alive and push it to a game seven, where anything can happen.

The Oilers started on the right foot in game five getting a goal from Jackson Rowland from a shot in the slot just 40 seconds into the game. Bandits captain Nic DeGraves would answer just over a minute later to tie the game.

The Bandits would add another goal at the midway mark of the first going up 2-1, the Oilers still looked composed for most of the period and outshot the Bandits 10-9.

Brooks would take complete control in the second period with 17 shots on Oilers Christian Green who did everything he could to keep the Green and Gold in the game. On those 17 shots, the Bandits would score four times, with two of the goals coming from Logan Sawyer.

The third period was more of the Bandits playing their game and taking control. They would make it 7-1 just under eight minutes into the frame. Sam Hall got the Oilers back on the board with 16:17 gone in the third period showing that the Oilers wouldn't roll over.

Sawyer would complete his hat trick with the Bandits just 11 seconds after Hall's goal, scoring the last goal in a one-sided game.

Green played a full 60 minutes making huge saves again, giving his best effort even though he wasn't getting much help elsewhere. The final shot count was 41-25 in favour of Brooks.

Game six is on Sunday night (April 28) at Centennial Arena in Okotoks with a puck drop of 7:00. If the Oilers win on Sunday, game seven will be in Brooks at 7:00 on Tuesday, April 30.

You can listen to the game on the Eagle 100.9 or stream it on Okotoks Online starting with the pre-game show at 6:45.

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