Cubs

By Jesse Gill

SPORTS

Medicine Hat Cubs square up series after weekend split with Okotoks Bisons

Feb 15, 2026 | 9:17 PM

The Medicine Hat Cubs bounced back from a 4-0 loss on Friday at home with a 4-3 win in Okotoks on Sunday to tie their best-of-five playoff series at one.

After getting shut out in the first game of the HJHL’s South Division Semi-Final, Cubs head coach Trent Derzaph already had his focus on game two.

“It’s one game, right? I just talked to the guys about it. Let’s turn the page and let’s be ready for Sunday,” Derzaph said on Friday night.

“They were ready, we weren’t… They’ve played a series and have been banging and playing at that speed, and we didn’t stick to that right from the beginning. I thought we got better as the game went on, but too little too late,” he added.

“They were coming down on us hard, and I think the guys weren’t quite ready for the playoff-style hockey.”

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The Cubs solved the Bisons’ goaltending and struck first in game two.

Forward Makhi Carriere scored at the 7:57 mark of the first period, with defenceman Blake Girard getting the assist.

The Bisons would strike back late in the period to tie things up at one heading into the second.

Early in the second, a goal from forward Zephyr Laplante gave the Bisons their only lead of the contest at 2-1.

Cubs forward Connor Chapman would find the net twice to finish out the second period with a 3-2 Cubs lead. Carriere assisted the goal at 8:56, and captain Kyle Woolridge and defenceman Hayden King assisted the goal scored at 19:38.

King would push the Cubs’ lead to 4-2 at the 8:20 mark of the third period on a goal assisted by forwards Josiah Jackson and Jesse Klimosko.

The Bisons would waste no time, striking back just 24 seconds later to cut their deficit to 4-3 on a goal from forward Chase Syal.

Cubs goaltender Marlo DeRosa stopped 27 of 30 shots in the contest.

After stopping all 31 of the shots the Cubs fired at him in game one, Bisons goaltender Derrick Ford stopped 35 of 39 in game two.

The series now shifts back to Medicine Hat and the Kinplex for game three on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Playing in game one for the Cubs, but not in the lineup for game two, were defencemen Austin Durzaph and Carter Allan, and forwards Nolan Sutherland and Everett Liefso.

Sutherland received a five-game suspension after a match penalty for boarding late in game one.

Cubs forward Mason Osinki completed the final game of a five-game suspension on Sunday. He can draw into the Cubs lineup for game three on Friday.

Forward Carson Kraft played his first game of the series for the Cubs in game two.

In the other South Division Semi-Final, the Cannex Cochrane Generals and Agrarisk Wheatland Kings also split their first two games.

The Kings had the upper-hand at home on Saturday with a 5-4 win.

The Generals were dominant on Sunday, winning 7-1.

The winners of each series will face each other in the HJHL’s South Final.