DRUMHELLER, AB (December 14, 2016) – The Brooks Bandits (25-3-4) came back from 2-1 and 4-3 deficits to beat the Drumheller Dragons 5-4 on Wednesday night on the road.
Nic Hamre (Ottawa, ON) had three assists, while Cody Young had 2 goals for the Dragons, as the Bandits were outshot for just the second time all season, 29-26.
The Bandits got off to a hot start, scoring on the opening shift when Nathan Plessis (Salmon Arm, B.C.) tipped home a Parker Huebner (Leduc, AB) point shot just 39 seconds into the game, beating goalie Hunter Virostek and extending his personal point streak to 5 games.
But Drumheller took a lead with two goals scored in less than three minutes; first a Cody Young wraparound goal off of a Bandit turnover behind their net, the second a Slater Dykema shot from the slot on the power play.
At the 11:41 mark, a large scrum erupted after a hit on the boards by Bandit captain Nick Prkusic (Medicine Hat, AB) on a Drumheller player, who didn’t lose his footing. Prkusic was attacked by multiple Dragon players, drawing multiple more Bandit players into the scrum. When the dust settled, four players received off-setting roughing double minors, while Prkusic was assessed an extra boarding minor. Ty Mappin (Big Valley, AB) was assessed a game misconduct.
The score held at 2-1 through the rest of the first, and Dennis Cesana (Providence, RI) tied it just over a minute into the second on a shorthanded breakaway set up by Parker Foo (Edmonton, AB).
At the 11:32 mark, a Plessis centering pass found Tyler Carangelo (Hamden, CT) in the slot, for a one-time goal that beat Virostek to make it a 3-2 Bandit lead. But the Dragons see-sawed the game the other way, when Yauheni Astrouski cut to the front of the net on a 2-on-1 around a sliding Bandit defender and fired a high shot over the glove of Mitch Benson (Windsor, ON) to make it 3-3.
Drumheller retook the lead 7:55 into the third when Cody Young fired in a shot from the slot. But less than a minute later, Arnaud Vachon (Ajax, ON) tapped in a rebound goal at the left side of the net to make it 4-4.
The winnng goal came on an offensive zone faceoff just after a Drumheller icing call. Charlie Marchand (Calgary, AB) fed a behind the back pass along the blue line to Prkusic, who curled to the high slot and fired a high shot through traffic, beating Virostek and giving the Bandits the dramatic 5-4 win.
Brooks returns home for its final two games before the Christmas break, hosting the Lloydminster Bobcats on Friday night, and the Fort McMurray Oil Barons on Saturday night. Both games begin at 7:00 PM with tickets available at tickets.brooksbandits.ca.