SANDRA M STANWAY
Brooks Bulletin
The BCHL Brooks Bandits go into the Christmas break with four consecutive wins in December including one against the Sherwood Park Crusaders which has been a tough team to defeat this season.
The Bandits, who have maintained first place since September, are close to the season’s halfway mark.
They’ve played 26 games and have won 22 and lost four. The team has 28 games remaining in the regular season.
Last week the Bandits doubled Sherwood Park 4-2 with Julian Fantino earning the first goal at 2:17 of the opening period.
AJ Lacroix had a powerplay goal at 5:41 and helped to close out the period with the 2-0 Bandits lead.
Ethan Beyer found the back of the net for the Bandits lone second period goal at 1:16 while the Crusaders managed their first goal.
In period three Nick Peluso got the team’s fourth goal at 6:46 to take a 4-1 lead but Jeremy Loranger, the league point leader, added a Crusaders goal.
In their four meetings, the Bandits have won two games against Sherwood.
At home in their final game before Christmas the Bandits shutout Salmon Arm Silverbacks 8-0.
The hometown game got off to a quick start. Before the opening whistle, a Bandits player was handed a misconduct penalty while a Silverback received a misconduct and unsportsmanlike penalty.
During the first period Caleb Mahar received a major penalty for checking from behind and a game misconduct. The penalty was reevaluated over the weekend and Mahar was suspended for one game.
Multiple penalties were issued on both sides of the bench but the vast majority were handed out to the Silverbacks and at one point it was a five on three game.
Nathan Free scored twice for the Bandits and Liam Fitzpatrik, Jace Letourneau, Quinn McCall, Nathan Brown, Ty Gordon and Nick Peluso each scored a single goal.
Last week Trail Smoke Eaters acquired the playing rights to former Bandit Josh Wiebe in exchange for future considerations.
The Bandits host West Kelowna on Dec. 28 and Salmon Arm at 4 p.m. on New Year’s Day.
