The Brooks Bandits celebrate a goal in their 7-2 victory over the Yarmouth Mariners on May 11, 2023. (Photo From www.brooksbandits.ca/Erica Perreaux)

By Chris Brown

Bandits start chase for third straight national title with 7-2 win

May 12, 2023 | 2:49 PM

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, MB – Led by blueliner Ethan Beyer, the Brooks Bandits turned in a dominant performance in their first game at the 2023 Centennial Cup,

He scored two goals and added one assist as the Bandits won 7-2 over the Yarmouth Mariners on Thursday afternoon at the junior A national championship in Portage La Prairie.

Beyer says before the game the Bandits coaches talked about the importance of setting a tone and the standard they want to play at all tournament long.

The first-year Bandit says the team is taking everything game by game and trying to keep everything simple, even as they’re chasing history. A win at the Centennial Cup this year would make the Bandits the first team to win three straight national titles

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“Going back-to-back-to-back for the first time ever is something pretty special. You never know if you’re ever going to be on a team or like a dynasty like Brooks. I guess you can start calling it a dynasty if we go back-to-back-to-back which is pretty crazy,” Beyer says. “And I know there are guys on this team that have been here for the last three years or the last three championships. And I think it’s important for them and I think it’s important as a group together just to get close and really try to go for it.”

He adds the championship pedigree and experience of those veteran Bandits is something the team can use to its advantage as the tournament rolls on.

Even though he wasn’t a part of the previous two title runs with the Bandits, Beyer brings plenty of championship experience to the team.

Playing with the prestigious Shattuck-St. Mary’s program Beyer played in the USA Hockey national tournament for the past four years. None of his teams were able to win the tournament, leaving him with a lot of extra motivation to finish his story.

“I know it’s not the same tournament but I think going into a national tournament with Brooks now it’s still what you crave. And getting a taste of winning, the AJHL, it was awesome but you don’t want to, it kind of felt like in my head we got more work to do,” he says.

The next game for the Bandits is Saturday afternoon against the Ottawa Junior Senators. They finish the round-robin with games on Monday against the Timmins Rock and Tuesday against the Terrebonne Cobras.

The playoff round begins May 19.

All Bandits games are at 2:30 p.m. (Mountain time) and will be broadcast live on Real Country 105.7 FM and streamed for free at realcountrybrooks.ca, featuring commentary from Nathan Crosby on play-by-play and Ken Fleury on colour.

All the Centennial Cup games will be video streamed on HN Live with the Championship game broadcast on TSN.

Fink named top forward

The Canadian Junior Hockey League announced Friday that the Bandits’ Aiden Fink as the recipient of its Top Forward Award for the 2022-23 campaign. Fink scored 41 goals and 56 assists in 54 regular season games.

Fink won the honour over fellow finalists Lucas Brennan (Selkirk Steelers, MJHL); Olivier Columbe (Edmundston Blizzard, MHL); Tyler Fukakusa (Toronto Jr. Canadiens, OJHL) and Kian Bell, (Battlefords North Stars, SJHL), following a voting process completed by the CJHL’s nine-member leagues, for their respective efforts during the course of the regular season.