MacNeil's hat trick heroics lift Oilers past Bandits in game four

The Okotoks Oilers have once again split the series with the Brook Bandits on Wednesday night (April 24) after former Medicine Hat Tiger Owen MacNeil scored a hat trick to take game four 4-1 in the BCHL second-round playoff series.

The series is now split 2-2 as they head back to Brooks for game five in what has essentially become a best-of-three series with a possible three games to go.

MacNeil would start the scoring after Hayden Fechner put the pressure on the Bandits defencemen behind the net, team captain Dean Spak was then able to create a turnover in the Bandits zone. The puck would find MacNeil's stick and he wouldn't make any mistake sniping a shot past Johnny Hicks, Bandits goaltender to get the Green and Gold on the board first.

The first period ended with a 1-0 Oilers lead; shots were near even with Okotoks having a thin lead of 6-5.

Owen MacNeil giving fist bumps to the Oilers bench after scoring his first of three goals on the night.

Hunter Wallace of the Bandits would tie the game six and a half minutes into the second period after breaking out in his own zone and skating it into the Oilers' zone finding an open hole. The Oilers would answer three minutes later after MacNeil found an open spot beside the Bandits' net, Jackson Rowland would get it to Sam Hall who would find MacNeil's stick and the Oilers would get their one-goal lead back. Christian Green made some huge saves in the second to keep the lead at 2-1.

Christian Green stopped 25 of 26 shots in game four for an Oilers victory.

The Green and Gold continued the momentum swing into the third frame after MacNeil completed the hat trick off a lucky bounce, which the Oilers were not getting last game, fooling Hicks and giving them the lead of 3-1 early in the third period. 

Jagger Tapper would cement the game with just under a minute and a half left, getting open space in the Oilers zone and clearing the puck down the ice into an open net after the Bandits had pulled Hicks in a desperate attempt to tie the game.

Green played a solid 60 minutes of hockey, stopping 25 shots in the contest and helping the Oilers tie the series once again.

Sam Huck putting on the moves in game four.

Okotoks will head to the Bandits' home rink for game five on Friday (April 26) and aim to string two wins in a row to give them a chance to close the series on home ice in game six.

The Sherwood Park Crusaders now await the winner of the Oilers and Bandits series as they swept the Blackfalds Bulldogs in four games, winning game four on Friday 7-4.

Puck drop will be at 7:00 pm.

To listen along to the game tune into the Eagle 100.9 or visit Okotoks Online to stream the game, pre-game show starts at 6:45.