SPRUCE GROVE, AB (April 15, 2019) – Fifteen-year old Corson Ceulemans (Beaumont, AB) scored his first two career Junior A goals, and goaltender Pierce Charleson (Aurora, ON) made 33 saves, as the Brooks Bandits moved one win away from their fifth AJHL championship with a 5-1 win in Game 3 of the league final on Monday night, taking a 3-0 series lead.
Brooks outshot the Saints 38-34 in the game, taking 1-0 and 3-1 intermission leads into a two-goal third period to complete the road win.
The lone goal of the first came off the stick of Andrew Lucas (Alexandria, VA) when he blasted a slap shot goal through a screen at the right faceoff circle.
Ceulemans took over in the second, scoring his first career goal as a Bandit at the 13:41 mark when he fired a top-shelf wrister home from the high slot. Just under six minutes later, the Wisconsin commit deflected home a goal from the side of the Saints net to double his tally and give the Bandits a 3-0 lead.
“It’s a really great feeling to get the first two,” said Ceulemans after the game. “The first one, the puck just kind of popped to me in the slot and I shot it as hard as I could; the second one was just a great pass by [Nathan] Plessis; he set me up really well.”
But the Saints drew closer as Cam Mitchell scored for the Saints on a wrister from the right circle just as the buzzer sounded to end the second period.
But Brooks saved its best for the final frame, as Lucas extended the lead to 4-1 with his second of the game at 12:15 on the power play, capitalizing on a net front scramble and backhanding the puck past Saints goalie Matt Davis. With 2:35 left in the game, a shot by Tyler Campbell (Winnipeg, MB) off a rush down the left wing flew by Davis and into the roof of the Saints net to notch the 5-1 final score.
The Bandits went 1 for 4 on the power play and a perfect 2 for 2 on the penalty kill in the game.
Game 4 is scheduled for 7 PM on Tuesday night with the Bandits on the verge of capturing the Inter Pipeline Cup. Pre-game coverage starts at 6:45 PM on Real Country 105.7 FM.
Photo: Aaron Grimaldo – Via Twitter