GRANDE PRAIRIE, AB (January 25, 2019) – Carter Wolski (Sexsmith, AB) had three points in his return to his old home arena, and the Brooks Bandits (42-3) recorded their 18th straight win, routing the host Grande Prairie Storm 10-2 on Friday night.
The win put the Bandits on the fifth-longest winning streak in AJHL history, behind only the 1987-88 St. Albert Saints and Calgary Canucks, the 2012-13 Brooks Bandits, and the 2017-18 Okotoks Oilers.
Simon Boyko (Mississauga, ON) opened the scoring just 3:20 into the game when he charged down the right side, worked around an aggressively positioned Storm goalie Kaeden Lane, and tucked a low shot into the open Storm net for a 1-0 lead. 24 seconds later, William Lemay (Marieville, QC) fired a pass from the left circle to a wide open Simon Gravel (Boucherville, QC) at the right circle for a wrist shot goal to make it 2-0.
Ryan Mahshie fired a shot off a rebound created by Wolski at 7:04 for a 3-0 lead to force a Storm timeout, and Brandon Scanlin hammered in a power play point shot at 15:47 to make it 4-0 Brooks. Grande Prairie responded on the next shift when Bryce Osepchuk beat Pierce Charleson (Aurora, ON) on a backdoor tap in on a 2 on 1 rush, but Brooks responded in kind less than a minute later when Mahshie scored his second of the game with a wrist shot that went off Lane’s glove and in at 16:34 to make it 5-1 and chase Lane from the net, who was replaced by Lars Kaliel.
After outshooting the Storm 12-11 in the first, Brooks outshot the home side 37-11 the rest of the way for a game total of 49-22. At the 12:43 mark of the second, a power play wrister by Mahshie tipped off Jake Theis (Chanhassen, MN) at the side of the net, and was tapped in by Arnaud Vachon (Ajax, ON) to make it 6-1 Brooks. Andrew Lucas (Alexandria, VA) fired in a rebound shot at 14:49 to make it 7-1 with another power play goal, before Noah Corson scored for Grande Prairie on a wrist shot through a screen to cut the Storm deficit to 7-2.
In the third, Wolski scored at the 2:37 mark, tapping in a rebound of a Boyko shot to extend the lead to 8-2. Scanlin rocketed in another power play point shot at 9:33 to make it 9-2, and Lemay put the team to double digits when he drove through the Storm defence and tucked a low shot home on a breakaway to notch the 10-2 final score.
Brooks will go for its 19th straight win on Saturday night when they travel to Whitecourt to take on the Wolverines at 7:30. Pre-game coverage starts at 7:15 on Real Country 105.7.