Cubs even second-round series with win Sunday in Okotoks

By JAMES TUBB on February 17, 2026.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

The Medicine Hat Cubs have arrived in the HJHL playoffs.

After a 4-0 shutout loss Friday at home to the Okotoks Bisons, the Cubs rebounded and held on for a 4-3 win Sunday on the road to even up the best-of-five series at 1-1. Coming off the series-opening loss, head coach Trent Derzpah says they responded with the full-team effort they were missing Friday.

“The guys realized from Friday night to Sunday, they’ve got to play a bit of a different style being in the playoffs, and they brought it,” Derzaph said. “They played a way heavier game and they forced turnovers. We were just on the ball, moving our feet and playing Cubs hockey.”

After coming into Game 1 off a first-round bye and a playoff game now under their belt, Derzaph says they flipped a switch in Game 2.

“The guys all know how you need to play in playoffs, it was obvious (Sunday), everybody bought in and laid their bodies in front of pucks and whatever it took to clear pucks,” Derzpah said. “Every time we went to shoot, we were shooting to score. We had other opportunities that we just couldn’t bury them as good as we could, but we did find some scoring.”

Makhi Carriere opened the scoring for the Cubs 7:57 into the game. Okotoks responded late in the first period to tie the game and then grabbed a lead early in the second period.

The Cubs rattled off a pair of goals from Connor Chapman to lead 3-2 through 40 minutes. The 19-year-old Milk River product had five goals in the regular season, Derzaph says he started slow and rose up after finding some confidence in the game.

“He’s really effective when he’s moving his feet and playing a little more physical and he brought that for us,” Derzaph said.

Hayden King scored in the third period, answered by a Bisons goal to make it a 4-3 Medicine Hat lead with 11:16 left in the game. Derzaph says they changed their system late in the frame as they looked to hold onto the lead, and he’s proud of how the group was able to hold off the Bisons in their own rink.

“These little things we’ve worked on all year, and use them very rarely, however, you know when it is that time in the game and we have to make some subtle changes, the guys jump on board and go with it,” Derzpah said.

Marlo DeRosa made 27 saves in the win.

The Cubs were without forward Nolen Sutherland who was handed a five-game suspension as a result of his last-minute boarding major in Game 1. They were also missing forward Mason Osinski, serving the last of a five-game suspension from the regular season, and overage defenceman Austin Derzpah. The Cubs’ bench boss liked how his team handled playing shorthanded.

“We’re in a pretty good spot, don’t get me wrong we could use Sutherland for sure, but there’s some options here with some affiliates as well this coming weekend,” Derzaph said. “We’re probably in about as good of a spot as we could be.”

Osinski and Derzpah are expected back in the lineup for Game 3 Friday (7:30 p.m.) at the Kinplex.

The series turns to a best-of-three, with Game 4 Saturday in Okotoks and, if needed, Game 5 back in Medicine Hat on Sunday at 3 p.m. The winner between the Cubs and Okotoks will face the winner of the Strathmore Wheatland Kings and Cochrane Generals, also tied up at 1-1. Strathmore won 5-4 Saturday and Cochrane responded with a 7-1 win Sunday.

Derzaph says there is a lot of confidence within the team coming off the win, an effort he says they can better transfer than regular season success.

“We’re back to home-ice advantage and we know that we can beat them,” Derzaph said. “They played a good game (Sunday) but we were that much better and we’re extremely confident, not cocky, just confident that we’ve got a team that wants to do it and can do it, and we’ll be there.”

19
-18