ESTEVAN - It was an eventful afternoon in the Centennail Cup national junior A hockey championship, presented by Tim Hortons, being played at Affinity Place in Estevan,
Playing in the first of three games on the day, the Brooks Bandits, who won the Alberta Junior Hockey League championship, trounced the Superior Internationals Junior Hockey League champions, the Red Lake Miners, 11-4 in the first game of the day. Brooks tied the tournament record for goals by one team in a game.
Red Lake led 1-0 at one point in the first period, and trailed 6-4 after two periods, but then Brooks pulled away with five in the third.
Devin Phillips scored twice for Brooks in the third period to break open the game. Dario Beljo, Noah Hackett, Nic DeGraves, Aiden Fink, Heath Armstrong, TJ Hughes, Hunter Wallace, Ryan McAllister and Josh Zinger also scored.
Jordan Baranesky, Noah Kramps, Nic Bolin and Brady Harroun had the Red Lake goals.
Ethan Barwick made 13 saves in goal for Brooks, while Jaxson Taupert stopped 34 shots for Red Lake.
The Bandits are the seventh team in tournament history to score 11 in a game. The last team to do it was the Brockville Braves in a games against the Oakville Blades in 2010.
Brooks has won both of their games at the tournament, while Red Lake has lost both of theirs.
The Flin Flon Bombers, meanwhile, defeated the Ottawa Junior A Senators 3-2 in overtime in the second game. It was the first overtime game of the tournament.
Massimo Gentile opened the scoring for Ottawa 2:40 into the first period. Jaeden Mercier responded for Flin Flon just over seven minutes later.
It remained a 1-1 game until the 13-second mark of the third period, when Gentile notched his second of the game with a great shot. Flin Flon tied the game with 6:36 to play on a goal by Matt Raymond, after he shovelled the puck towards the net.
Xavier Lapointe scored the winner 21 seconds into overtime.
Cal Shell made 31 saves to get the win in goal for Flin Flon. William Desmarais had 27 saves for Ottawa.
The Senators are the Central Canadian Hockey League champions. They have lost both of their games. The Bombers have won both of their games and the SJHL representatives, as they lost the SJHL final to the host Estevan Bruins.
The Bruins will face the Ontario Junior Hockey League's Pickering Panthers in the night game at 7:30 p.m.
SASKTODAY.ca will have full coverage of that game.
