Bandits down Canmore 6-2 to win 11th straight game
BROOKS, AB — Nathan Plessis had two goals in his return to the lineup from suspension, as the Brooks Bandits (27-10-1) got the best of the Canmore Eagles (17-19-2) for the second straight game, downing their South rivals 6-2 in front of a crowd of 1,365 on New Year’s Day at the Centennial Regional Arena.
The win extends the Bandits’ league-leading win streak to eleven games, moving them to within 5 points of the South division-leading Okotoks Oilers, with Okotoks holding a game in hand. It also featured the return to the lineup of veteran defenceman Shane Bear, who returned from the NCAA ranks for his first Junior A game since the 2016 Western Canada Cup.
Brooks opened the scoring 3:44 into the game when a centering pass from Jake Theis at the right halfboards found a streaking-in Arnaud Vachon in the slot, who fired a quick wrister by goalie Thomas Davis. Brooks doubled the lead at 12:46 when Louis Jamernik was robbed by Davis on a sprawling pad save of a point blank shot, but Plessis collected the puck at the end wall and banked it off the skate of Davis and into the net for a 2-0 lead.
Before the period was out, however, a Trevor Van Steinburg shot ricocheted off of a Bandit skate and past Mitch Benson to cut the deficit in half, having outshot the Bandits 16-14 in the opening frame.