Oilers go down swinging in game four against Vees

OKOTOKS, AB (April 9, 2025) – The Okotoks Oilers wouldn’t be put away without a fight as they came one goal away from tying the game late in the third period but fell 4-2 to the Penticton Vees in game four of the 2025 Rogers BCHL Playoffs.

With the loss, the Oilers’ first full season in the BCHL comes to a close after achieving many firsts in franchise history on a team filled with new faces.

One of the new faces for the Oilers this season was team MVP and goaltender Olivier Ciarlo (Laval, QB). Ciarlo made 27 saves in his final game with the Green and Gold as he will be playing postsecondary hockey with the University of Guelph next season. Ciarlo who won the hearts of the Green Army this season with his stellar play made a total of 127 saves in the four games played against the Vees in the first round of the best-of-seven series.

Max Heise who donned the Green and Gold uniform for five games two seasons ago opened the scoring for his third goal of the series with just under 13 minutes left in the first period.

Brock Souch (Edmonton, AB) picked up his first goal of the series just over five minutes into the second period as he was able to get a breakaway on Vees netminder Ethan Buenaventura. Souch would go to his backhand and tuck it behind Buenaventura to tie the game up at 1-1. Hunter Sawka (Cochrane, AB) grabbed the primary assist on Souch’s third point of the series and Logan Broten (Chaska, MN) added the secondary assist for his first point of the 2025 Rogers BCHL Playoffs.

The Vees regained the one-goal lead as Anselmo Rego picked up his first goal of the playoffs less than three minutes after Souch tied the game up at one apiece. Heise picked up an assist on the goal for his seventh point of the postseason. Before the second period came to a close, Luke Posthumus extended the Vees lead to two goals after collecting his fourth goal of the series.

With three minutes left in the game and down by two goals, the Oilers’ head coach Tyler Deis would pull Ciarlo for the extra attacker to attempt to tie the game up to keep Okotoks’ season alive. Coy Pighin (Nanton, AB) would answer for his head coach as he brought the Oilers back within one with just over two minutes left in the game. Oilers captain Jackson Rowland (Calgary, AB) picked up the primary assist with Sawka collecting the secondary assist for his third point of the playoffs.

Former Green and Gold member Conyr Hellyer would cement the fate of the Oilers as he dumped the puck down the ice with 30 seconds left and hit the goal for an empty net marker. The Vees captain would finish the series with four points against his former team.

The final horn would mark the end of the Oilers 2024-2025 BCHL season as both teams met at centre ice to follow the game’s tradition of shaking hands at the end of the series. After the handshakes, the Oilers made sure to thank all of the members of the Green Army for their support this season by tapping their sticks and waving them in the air.

With that, the first full season in the BCHL for the Oilers comes to a close but marks only the beginning for the Green and Gold franchise as many more seasons in the BCHL are to come.