Written by: Scott Savard
Headline photo: Chad Goddard
Okotoks, AB (February 24, 2026) – Viking Rentals Centre was packed for the fourth annual Minds Matter game, with 1,770 students and fans in attendance, as the Okotoks Oilers hosted the Blackfalds Bulldogs this afternoon.
While the Oilers came up on the wrong side of a 5-0 game, the students in attendance made sure to show their support with flags, horns, and using their voices to deafening levels to do their best in boosting the Oilers confidence and determination.
Cortney Vines and Ila Tanna, who are Wellness Coaches with the Minds Matter Foothills School Division, explained what it means to have a day like this for students.
“You see the crowd, it’s a positive impact. This is our first sold-out crowd. I think it said over 1,700 kids in the stands today. So, when do you ever get the ability to speak to 1,700 kids about mental health, right? So, this is a really important day for us,” Vines said.
“I think it’s really important to understand that these are still kids. No matter if you’re an athlete, if you’re a community member, or a kid in a school, we all have mental health. We don’t all have mental illness, but we all have mental health. So, this is an opportunity to be able to show kids in schools that even hockey players have mental health, and we need strategies. ”
Tanna would add that this year saw more students than in previous years sign up to come watch the Green and Gold play on a school day for the Minds Matter game.
“Amazing. That was the first time we’ve had a full sold-out crowd, and in record time, like in a week. All those seats, 1770 in the arena, and the kids have a blast, whether (the Oilers) are winning, losing, whatever goes on, they just have a great time. Then it gives us a chance to put our message out there, too, which is what they also hear in classrooms universally as well. Just a great reinforcement,” said Tanna.
While the Minds Matter game helps focus on mental health, both Vines and Tanna work with the students with their mental health year-round.
“We teach in classrooms every day. We are wellness coaches; we teach Monday through Friday in classrooms in the school year, universally to the full classrooms. Then in the summertime, we work in the community, and we run free programming in the community,” Vines explained.
Tanna and Vines got the students today to practice acts of kindness throughout the game with a thoughtful gesture of giving out Oilers tickets.
“Our theme this year was kindness as a power play. The month of February is kindness month, tomorrow is Pink Shirt Day at school, and so we’re pairing it all together. Within the crowd today, the Oilers provided us with tickets, so what we did is we went around, we were watching for kindness acts, kids behaving appropriately. We would give a kid 4 tickets for them to have for their family, and then we gave them four more tickets for them to do as a kind of act of kindness and to give to somebody else. So that was happening throughout the crowd today, and I don’t know how many we gave out, 160 tickets? So that was really cool. We had so much positive feedback from the kids when they got to have the tickets for their family, but also that they got to hand those tickets out and give them to somebody else. You saw the impact, right? The change in the face, and that’s the idea, right? Kindness is a mental health strategy. Doing a kind act for somebody gives them certain serotonin, but then it gives the person receiving the serotonin as well. It’s fantastic,” Vines said.
While the scoreboard wasn’t in favour of the Oilers, Tanna explained that the event was still a success.
“It was a success, it was fantastic. I think everybody had a great time, and we just learned a little more about kindness and got to practice it, actually, in person. Our schools are their own communities, but to come together as a division is really fantastic. It’s a lot of kids, and a lot of ‘loud’, and they have a great time, so do we,” Tanna explained.
“The crowd stayed in it. They stayed in it from the moment it started. I think that’s a really important thing, right? They stayed in it, and they were still cheering right to the end, so it didn’t matter to them if it was a win or a loss today,” Vines added.
When asked if a fifth annual Minds Matter game would be of interest, both Vines and Tanna said to expect a fifth annual game with a possible special celebration for the milestone.
As for the action on the ice, Patrik Kliment made his fourth straight start for the Green and Gold, once again doing his best to keep his team in the game with 33 saves. Olivér Király would be in net for the Bulldogs and only had to turn away 18 shots for the shutout.
Duncan Thompson and Nikita Ivashchenko would each collect two goals in the game, with Noah Mertz adding one for the 5-0 final.
The Green and Gold will be on the road this weekend with visits in Salmon Arm and West Kelowna.
The Okotoks Oilers are a not-for-profit, community-run junior hockey franchise competing in the BCHL and operating out of Viking Rentals Centre. For more information, visit okotoksoilers.com or follow the Oilers on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram.
