BROOKS, AB (February 17, 2020) – The Brooks Bandits had nine different goal scorers, rolling the Camrose Kodiaks 10-3 on Family Day at the Centennial Regional Arena in front of 1,884 fans.
The win puts Brooks just two points back of the 1st place Okotoks Oilers, with 3 games to go in the regular season. Goaltender Pierce Charleson (Aurora, ON) made 17 saves in the win.
The Bandits needed only 39 seconds to score the game’s first goal, as forward Sean Chisholm (Caledonia, ON) scored backhand, through the five-hole of Kodiaks netminder Cole Tisdale. 17 seconds later, forward James McIsaac (Winnipeg, MB) scored backhand on a breakaway to give Brooks a 2-0 lead less than a minute into the contest.
Things would settle down, and Camrose would get one back at 2:21 thanks to a Griffin Fraser one-timer to cut the Bandit lead to 2-1. Later in the period, with one second remaining in the frame, captain Jakob Lee (Owen Sound, ON) ripped a shot from the slot and scored on the powerplay to make it 3-1, ending Tisdales’s night, as he was replaced in the 2nd period by backup Logan Willcott.
Camrose would answer, as Connor Brock roofed a shot at 5:11 of the 2nd period to make it 3-2. But the Bandits took over after that, with defenceman Jake Kustra (Lethbridge, AB) firing the puck off the posts and into the Kodiak net at 5:50, which started with a clean faceoff win by Lee. Then at 9:22, after killing off a penalty, forward Randy Hernandez (Miami, FL) finished off a breakaway on the backhand to make it 5-2 Brooks.
The Bandits made it 6-2 at 14:32, thanks to offensive zone faceoff win by TJ Hughes (Hamilton, ON), followed by a pass to forward Devin Phillips (Raleigh, North Carolina), who finished off the pass into the open net in the powerplay. With less than two minutes in the period, forward Ryan McAllister (London, ON) fired the puck top shelf on the powerplay to make it 7-2 Bandits.
Brooks made it 8-2 with 11:43 left in the 3rd period, as forward Taylor Makar (Calgary, AB) went end-to-end, slipping past two defenders and finishing off the highlight reel goal. Hughes made it 9-2 at 13:30 on a backhand goal that went top shelf. Camrose would get one back on a Cody Laskosky goal at 14:07, but Hughes would finish the game off with a goal from the right circle to make it 10-3, the final.
Shots were 43-20 Brooks, as the Bandits went 4/9 on the powerplay, and were 3/3 on the penalty kill.
The Bandits will face the Oilers in Okotoks on Friday, February 21st at 7:00 PM. Live coverage on Real Country 105.7 FM begins at 6:45 PM.
Photo: Em Duncan