GRANDE PRAIRIE, AB (November 7, 2023) – Ty Mason had two goals, Liam Fitzpatrick scored his first career goal, and the Brooks Bandits blew out the Grande Prairie Storm 8-1 on Tuesday at Bonnetts Energy Centre.
It was the Bandits (18-3) largest road win of the season, as Johnny Hicks (Kamloops, BC) made 9 saves for the team’s third straight win.
Mason (Weyburn, SK) opened the scoring at 8:21 on the powerplay, receiving a cross-ice pass from Nic DeGraves (Edmonton, AB) and shooting forehand to make it 1-0. The Bandits doubled the lead at 9:33, as Jordan Hughesman (Winnipeg, MB) fired a right point shot into the Storm net to make it 2-0. Grande Prairie got one back at 11:57, as defenceman Kaiden Bugera scored off the rush to cut the lead to 2-1. Logan Sawyer (Calgary, AB) thought he had scored late in the period, sniping a top corner shot, but goaltender interference was called on the play. Shots were 12-2 Brooks in the period.
The Bandits came out firing in the 2nd period, as Mason sniped the top corner at 3:09 to make it 3-1 Brooks. Quickly after at 4:32, defenceman Quinn McCall (St. John, IN) also scored top shelf to extend the lead to 4-1. Brooks then had to kill off back-to-back penalties, both successfully.
Forward Hunter Wallace (Oak Lake, MB) scored off the rush, sliding in a forehand puck at 5:25 to make it 5-1. At 10:59, forward Mirko Buttazzoni (Langley, BC) entered the Storm zone and fired in a forehand shot to extend the Bandits lead to 6-1. Then, Liam Fitzpatrick (Moose Jaw, SK) pulled a puck out of an offensive zone face-off and scored forehand for his first AJHL goal at 13:03 to make it 7-1. Nathan Free (Calgary, AB) ended the night at 17:06, scoring off the rush to give Brooks the 8-1 advantage. Shots were 33-10 Brooks, as the Bandits went 1/3 on the powerplay and 3/3 on the penalty kill.
The rematch with the Storm goes Wednesday, November 8th at Bonnetts Energy Centre. Game time is 7:00 pm.