DRUMHELLER, AB (November 25, 2015) – The Brooks Bandits (18-5-2) moved back into first place in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) South Division with a 6-1 win over the Drumheller Dragons (10-16-2) in front of 470 fans at the Drumheller Memorial Arena on Wednesday night.
The Bandits, missing leading scorer Jared Cockrell (Byfield, MA) and high-scoring defenceman Charlie Marchand (Calgary, AB) due to injury, got goals from six different goal scorers, pulling away with 4 consecutive goals after the Dragons had cut the deficit to just 2-1 early in the second period.
Rookie Bandit forward Rhett Kingston (Black Diamond, AB) opened the scoring just two seconds past the halfway mark of the first period, with a spinning wrist shot off of a faceoff for his first goal as a Bandit in his fourth game with the team. The goal came just a few minutes after Clint Filbrandt had rang the post on a chance in front of an open Bandits net on a net front scramble.
Just 32 seconds later, the Bandits scored off of another offensive zone faceoff when Nick Prkusic (Medicine Hat, AB) tipped a Jesse Baird (Brampton, ON) point shot past goaltender Jonny Hogue to double the Brooks lead. The Bandits outshot the Dragons 12-10 in the opening frame.
In the second, the Dragons finally got on the board on a power play at the 4:20 mark. After Brooks killed off a 5-on-3, a Shane Bear (Calgary, AB) clearance shattered the Bandit defenceman’s stick. An impromptu second 5-on-3, stick-wise, led to a Ryan Chynoweth shot from the bottom of the right circle that Josh Davies (Guelph, ON) stopped. But Chynoweth collected his own rebound and snuck it in short side on Davies to make it a 2-1 game.
The Bandits would pull away, however; less than 3 minutes after the Dragons scored on the power play, Josh McKechney (Calgary, AB) did the same, firing a top shelf shot on the rush past Hogue for his team-leading seventh man advantage marker of the year, and making it a 3-1 game.
|Soon after, a 2-on-1 rush led to Kyler Nachtigall (Calgary, AB) setting up Jesse Pereira (Fort Erie, ON) for another goal to make it 4-1. Finally, on another power play goal, Joe O’Connor (Hamden, CT) fired a shot from the high slot through a screen set up by Prkusic in front of the net, sneaking by Hogue for a 5-1 lead.
The Bandits outshot Drumheller 11-7 in the second period but there were only 6 shots total in the third, as the Bandits held Drumheller to just 2 more shots on goal. The only goal of the third came when captain Derek Lodermeier (Brooklyn Center, MN) snuck a shot between Hogue’s pads while falling to the ice at the left side of the net to notch the 6-1 final.
The Bandits outshot Drumheller 27-19 in the game, going 2 for 7 on the power play and 4 for 5 on the penalty kill.
Brooks will have tomorrow off before returning home to host the Bonnyville Pontiacs at 7:00 PM. The game will feature a pre-game ceremony honouring long-time Bandit broadcaster Dennis Seibel, as well as Bandit director James Mitchell shaving off his hair at the first intermission as part of a cancer research fundraiser.
Tickets are available online at http://tickets.brooksbandits.ca, by phone at (403) 501-0122, or in person at the Centennial Regional Arena.