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Photo courtesy of Brooks Bandits
AJHL Hockey

Bandits take 17th straight to start season, downing Saints 4-2

Oct 27, 2019 | 10:33 AM

BROOKS, AB – Sean Chisholm (Caledonia, ON) had a second consecutive two-goal night, and Tim Rego (Mansfield, MA) scored the game-winner, as the Brooks Bandits (17-0) stayed undefeated with a 4-2 home win over the visiting Spruce Grove Saints on Saturday night at the Centennial Regional Arena.

With the win, the Bandits are one more victory away from tying the 1993-94 Olds Grizzlys for the second-longest win streak to start a season in AJHL history.

Chisholm opened the scoring at the 13:16 mark when a Chris Pappas (Toronto, ON) pass on a 2-on-1 found his stick, with the puck deflected into goaltender Maxence Duchesne, who covered it up precariously on the goal line. However, after consultation with the goal judge, the referee ruled the play a good goal, with the Bandits taking the early lead.

But Spruce Grove tied it just over four minutes later when Seth Fyten tapped a rebound puck from the left side of the net past Pierce Charleson (Aurora, ON), keeping it even despite the Bandits having doubled the Saints in shots 10-5.

In the second, the Bandits dominated play with a 19-3 shot advantage, tallying two more goals. First, Chisholm scored on a mid-blueline slapshot at 3:34 to reclaim the lead, and Rego one-timed home a puck from the slot on the power play at 6:16 to make it 3-1.

But the Saints kept it close, with Stanley Cooley scoring on a wraparound at 12:28 that was gloved by Charleson while the puck lay on his back after an odd deflection, but again the puck was ruled to have crossed the goal line in the process.

But the Bandits shut down the Saints in the third, again doubling them in shots 10-5, and adding one more goal when Brayden Krieger (Elora, ON) sniped home a wrister from the right faceoff circle.

The Bandits outshot the Saints 39-13 in the game, going 2 for 7 on the power play and a perfect 7 for 7 on the penalty kill. They’ll go for 18 straight wins on Tuesday night when they visit Canmore to take on the Eagles at 7 PM. Pre-game coverage starts at 6:45 PM on Real Country 105.7.