KARLSTAD, SWEDEN (August 19, 2023) – The Brooks Bandits killed 11 penalties, but also had six different goal scorers as they took down the host Farjestad BK team 6-3 on Saturday at Lofbergs Arena.
The Bandits will play for the U20 Super Challenge Championship on Sunday, August 20th vs France at 2:30 pm (CET), 6:30 am (MST).
DeGraves (Edmonton, AB) opened the scoring 2:13 into the game, as a rebound off a Dakota MacIntosh (Winnipeg, MB) shot found the captain in the left circle, which he fired into the back of the Farjestad net. Just 13 seconds later, forward Danylo Korzhyletskyi (Kyiv, Ukraine) retrieved a puck behind the Swedish net, and passed to an open Jordan Hughesman (Winnipeg, MB), to bang in to make it 2-0. The Bandits tripled their lead to 3-0 at 17:31, as Farjestad turned over the puck at their blueline, and the Bandits capitalized. Forward Logan Sawyer (Orangeville, ON) found in the right circle, who fed Davide Patella (Laval, QC) cross ice for the tap-in to make it 2-0. However, with eight seconds left in the period, Farjestad got one back on the powerplay, as Alex Labraaten cleaned up a loose puck off a point shot to cut the lead to 3-1.
Farjestad got another back at 5:54 of the 2nd period, as Albert Wikman scored from the left circle to the lead to 3-2. Brooks had to kill five penalties in the period, but with 4:24 left in the frame were rewarded. Caelan Fitzpatrick (Moose Jaw, SK) tipped a Dylan Compton (Victoria, BC) shot to make it 4-2. However, with 63 seconds left in the frame, Farjestad forward Wille Johansson scored on a breakaway to cut the Brooks lead to 4-3.
The Bandits had three more penalties to kill in the 3rd period, but wouldn’t let Farjestad tie. Forward Parker Lalonde (Aberdeen, SK) scored off the rush from the right circle at 7:33 to give Brooks a 5-3 lead. Farjestad pulled their goalie for the extra attacker and had a powerplay, but Hunter Wallace (Oak Lake, MB) would ensure the comeback wouldn’t happen, scoring on the empty net to make it 6-3.
Brooks outshot Farjestad 40-35.
In the other Semifinal, France doubled Hungary 4-2.
Located 300km west of Stockholm, and 220km east of Oslo, Karlstad is a city of 65,000 residents. The Lofbergs Arena seats 8,645 for hockey, and is the home of Farjestad BK, who’s professional team compete in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). Karlstad is located in the Central European Timezone, which is eight hours ahead of Mountain Time.