OKOTOKS, AB (April 12, 2022) – The Brooks Bandits are one win away from earning their spot in the AJHL Final thanks to a dramatic 4-3 overtime win on Tuesday in Okotoks, punctuated by a Devin Phillips goal in the extra period.
Phillips (Holy Cross) scored the game winner 4:45 into the extra frame, after the Oilers came back to tie the game in the 3rd.
Brooks leads the best-of-seven South Division Final 3 games to 0, with a chance to sweep the series on Wednesday, April 13 (Listen on Real Country 105.7 FM).
Goaltender Ethan Barwick made a left pad save on a Rieger Lorenz breakaway chance to keep the game scoreless until Ryan McAllister (Western Michigan) sniped a low left circle shot that beat Oilers goaltender Jack McNaughton at 14:13 to give Brooks a 1-0 lead. At 18:49, forward Anthony Cipollone (Quinnipiac) tipped in a Josh Zinger (Northern Michigan) shot to increase the Bandits lead to 2-0. Shots in the 1st were 14-7 Brooks.
Okotoks got on the board at 2:17 on a forehand shot from Riley Bodnarchuk. Just 19 seconds later on the powerplay, Dean Spak tipped in a shot to tie the game 2-2. But Brooks would reclaim the lead at 4:26, as McAllister had a big rebound come to him off a Zach Bookman (Merrimack) point shot which he wouldn’t miss, scoring on the open net and giving Brooks a 3-2 lead. Shots in the 2nd were 12 -7 Bandits.
The Oilers tied it up at 13:58 of the 3rd, as forward Conyr Hellyr picked the top right corner of Barwick’s net. Shots in the 3rd were 19-12 Brooks.
In overtime, Phillips won an offensive zone faceoff, and shot the puck at the net front, redirecting off an Oiler skate and into the net to give Brooks the 4-3 win. Shots were 2-0 in overtime for Brooks, and 47-26 overall.
Postgame comments from #BrooksBandits forwards Devin Phillips and Ryan McAllister following the dramatic 4-3 overtime win in Game 3!@TheAJHL pic.twitter.com/p3T3fQ8iZF
– Brooks Bandits (@BrooksBandits) April 13, 2022
Game 4 goes Wednesday (April 13) in Okotoks, game time is 7:00 pm and can be heard on Real Country 105.7 FM.