The Brooks Bandits earned the second and final RBC Cup berth out of the Crescent Point Energy Western Canada Cup (WCC) with a hard-fought 2-1 win over the reigning RBC Cup champion Portage Terriers at Affinity Place on Sunday.
The game against Portage was Brooks’ second opportunity at claiming a spot at the RBC Cup after losing the WCC championship game 6-0 against the West Kelowna Warriors less than 24 hours earlier.
“We had to look at it like it was a Game 6 last night and we were coming back with another shot at it,” said Bandits forward Jeff Malott, who scored the game winner 12:23 into the second period by stuffing the puck five hole on Terriers goaltender Nathan Park from the top of the crease. “We just did a pretty good job coming back with a clean slate and not really focusing on the game last night (and) just worrying about punching our ticket today. It doesn’t matter how you get there, we’re going.”
The Terriers earned the best chance to go ahead early in the game on a Shawn Bowles shot from the faceoff dot that Bandits netminder Garret Hughson gloved down before it found the top corner. Penalty trouble in the first period then stopped any momentum the Terriers built up in the first few minutes and they found themselves down by one heading into the second thanks to a nice last-minute play on the man advantage by Bandits centre Josh McKechney who picked up the puck on the wall, got to the middle, split the defence and deked to his forehand on Park sliding the puck past his skate and just inside the post.
“We came into this knowing that special teams was going to play a big role and we were lucky enough to get one in the first and take advantage,” said Malott. “It was really good for our full 60 minutes to get one on the special teams and just kickstart everything.”
The Bandits completely controlled the play in the second period limiting the Terriers to only a few chances to hold possession of the puck in the opposition zone. One of those chances resulted in a power-play marker by forward Braydon MacDonald with 1:37 left in the frame when he got a tip in front on a shot by Cody Haiskanen deflecting it high glove side on Hughson.
“I don’t think (fatigue) was too tough on us just because we had the earlier game yesterday, which was nice,” said Park, about playing in a double-overtime match against the Melfort Mustangs the previous afternoon. “They are also coming off a pretty quick turnaround. I mean, yeah, probably near the end the legs were probably not as fresh as they would be for most guys out there, but it’s just one of those things. (It’s the) same thing in a long playoff series. It’s just a long tournament.”
The energy gained off the late second-period goal along with a five-minute major for checking from behind handed out to Bandits forward Landon Welykholowa for creaming Terriers star defenceman Brett Orr against the end boards in the Portage zone helped the Green and White get on the offence, but Hughson stood tall keeping square to the puck and eliminating any second chances. Despite laying face down on the ice for a couple minutes and having to be helped off it by teammates, Orr returned to the game playing a regular shift in the last 12 minutes of the third.
“It’s going to take quite a bit to knock him out of the game, to the point where he can’t even stand on his own two feet,” said Park. “In our series against Winnipeg he got hit behind the net and bounced back from that, kind of a similar play too. It just goes to show the other guys too what it’s going to take to win that game.”
Ryan Papaioannou, head coach and general manager of the Brooks Bandits, said it’s tough to try and kill a five-minute penalty up by one four minutes into the third, but his guys worked hard and generated an opportunity for Portage to take a minor half-way in making it four on four. He said that penalty enabled them to keep the pressure off and work the clock.
“We talked to our guys last night right after the game,” said Papaioannou. “This is the same route we took the year we won the RBC in 2013. We weren’t the Western Canada Cup champions. At the end of the day when we were RBC champions nobody cared who won the Western Canada Cup, so if we’re able to go and do what we think we’re able to do we’ll get an opportunity to avenge that loss yesterday.”
