The Okotoks Oilers made a clean sweep of the Spruce Grove Saints in the first round of their best-of-five series in the BCHL Alberta Division and will now face the number one seed Brooks Bandits for a best-of-seven series.

Head coach and GM of the Oilers Tyler Deis explained there were some tweaks throughout the series with the Saints that helped lead them to advance to the next round.

"I think you kind of adapt to what their style is and then after the first game you figure out what you need to do and be able to take advantage of what they are doing. We adapted, we had a couple objectives right off the bat and then once you play them one game you see success or you don't see success then you try to adapt to those situations," Deis said.

"I think the one thing we really wanted to do was just get in behind their d-man and have really hard and aggressive forecheck and use that kind of component of it."

During game three of the series against the Saints, the Oilers were taking point shots with screens in front of Spruce Groves's goalie, setting up tips which can be seen on Connor Gourley's goal in the 5-4 victory, getting a piece of Sam Hall's point shot.

"The biggest thing is, they do a really good job of blocking shots. We wanted to make sure that our defencemen or our higher shots in the zone were moving and creating those shooting lanes better because they were blocking a bunch of them early on. Then it's adapting to those situations to make sure we got more guys going to the net and making it harder and us moving our feet and getting those shots on net," he said.

The first game in the series saw the Oilers solve their former goaltender Alex Sheiwiller five times, the Saints would then go with Okotoks' own Ryan De Kok in the final two games.

"With him, he's an unbelievable kid and a great goalie. He probably really wanted to beat us, but we just knew different areas where we wanted to make sure we went hard, and that we were tracking loose pucks in front, going to the net hard and making it hard on him. It's not an easy situation for him to come into a game against his old team. He obviously wanted to beat us, we had a gameplan and stuck to it," Deis said on playing Scheiwiller in the first game of the series.

One player who stood out for the Green and Gold was Jagger Tapper who had a goal in all three games and finished the series with six points. He was all over the ice and the scoresheet, helping lift the Oilers to the next round. Tapper was also rewarded with BCHL player of the week with his point production.

"Jagger's a really good player. When he plays fast and aggressive, he's arguably one of the better players in junior hockey. When he's consistent like that, he's amazing," he said.

The leadership and the hard-nose play of Brett Huxley were another key in the victory. Huxley missed a good portion of the season due to injury but since coming back in March, he has been a difference maker.

"He's one of those guys that eats up positive minutes and plays in all situations. Consistency is with Huxley and what he brings to this team," Deis added.

The Brooks Bandits will bring another level to the series when they play on Friday (April 19) in Brooks, but nothing should come as a shock with the Oilers and Bandits battling for many years.

"The biggest thing is the stuff away from the puck. We have to figure out how to slow them down, and it's not an easy task. We have to try and eliminate their speed as much as possible, especially through that neutral zone. They can score a lot and come off that rush to generate a lot of opportunities. We have got to do a good job of slowing them down in the neutral zone, being physical, having our angles and it's got to be a unit of five. It can't just be individuals. That's probably one of the biggest things that we got to get our gameplan around, but it's not an easy task," he said.

To listen to Friday's game one, you can listen to the broadcast on the Eagle 100.9, or you can stream the broadcast on Okotoks Online.

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