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Tuesday, May 21, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

HOCKEY CANADA HANDOUT PHOTO BY MATTHEW MURNAGHAN

Prince George Spruce Kings captain Ben Poisson, right, battles for the puck behind the Spruce Kings’ net during the final match of the 2019 National Junior A Championship at the Centennial Regional Arena in Brooks, Alta. on Sunday. The Brooks Bandits beat Prince George 4-3.

Bandits cut down Spruce Kings in national final Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca BROOKS, Alta — The Brooks Bandits are national junior A hockey champions and they have the Prince George Spruce Kings to thank for showing them how to get there. The Bandits thrilled their fans among the capacity hometown crowd of 2,515 that packed into Centennial Regional Arena Sunday afternoon when they beat the Spruce Kings 4-3 in the championship final. Simon Boyko scored two goals, including the winner 16:13 into the second period. The Bandits led 4-1 at that point and had to withstand a determined comeback attempt from the Spruce Kings, who came close to forcing the game into overtime. After nearly nine months of hockey, dating back to the start of training camps in late August, the Spruce Kings and Bandits, who had never played each other, developed a heated rivalry over the past three weeks which culminated in Sunday’s final. Leading into the national tournament the Bandits lost a six-game Doyle Cup series to the Spruce Kings for the Pacific region title. “I believe losing the Doyle Cup is the only reason we won this tournament, and that’s the credit that Prince George gets,” said Bandits head coach and general manager Ryan Papaioannou. “We’re a way better team because of Prince George. They beat us four times

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CITIZEN STAFF PHOTO

Spruce Kings fan Nancy Turner shows her true colours while her favourite team warmed up for a game at the 2019 National Junior A hockey championship in Brooks, Alta. in nine days and we’d only lost six times in nine months before that. “I honestly believe they’re the reason that we won. They’re the best team we’ve seen all year and

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going into this weekend I was sceptical that we’d be able to beat them two times. We had to hang on at the end, it was a good thing we had a 3-0 lead.”

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Bandits defenceman Brandon Scanlin said coming home to familiar surroundings in Brooks after the Doyle Cup loss and playing in front of their fans for the national trophy provided comfort to his team and brought out the best in them. “We had a little trouble in the Doyle Cup series in Prince George but we just refocused and came back and it’s a great feeling,” said Scanlin. “We knew we weren’t going to play there in (the national tournament). They really showed us that there’s better, faster teams and if we don’t adjust it could be a tough competition.” The Bandits could not have asked for a better start. They scored their first of the game just 93 seconds in. Boyko skated out from behind the net with the and filed a high backhander in over Logan Neaton’s shoulder. Six minutes later, Randy Hernandez fed a pass across to AJHL scoring champion William Lemay and he fired a laser from the point that rippled the mesh. The Kings’ attack looked slow and disorganized with passes missing their targets and players caught out of position the Bandits made them look bad. Shots were 9-2 in their favour through 13 minutes when they struck again. Brooks captain Nathan Plessis scored his first of the tournament, taking advantage of a poor clearing attempt by the Kings that was picked off at the blueline.

Lack of oversight on display EDITORIAL 6

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Nick Hale let go a shot that Plessis tipped on goal and he got to the rebound and put it in. By the time the shooting stopped for the first intermission the shell-shocked Kings were down 3-0, looking for a solutions. Their power play provided that glimmer of hope, 2:22 into the second period. Max Coyle took the shot from the point and the puck bounced off goalie Pierce Charleson right to Patrick Cozzi and he scored with a wrister from the slot. Cozzi, one of the leading scorers for the Kings, suffered a high-ankle sprain in the Kings’ 2-1 semifinal win Saturday night over the Oakville Blades and that required a tape job from trainer Rick Brown just so Cozzi could play Sunday. After skating in quicksand much of the opening period the Kings picked up the pace considerably in the second period and matched the Bandits’ speed, resulting in plenty of offensive zone time and scoring chances. But Boyko restored the threegoal lead late in the second period, cashing in the only quality chance the Bandits could generate in the period. He took Hale’s perfect stretch pass just over the blueline, applied the brakes in the face-off circle and snapped a high shot in behind Neaton. If that wasn’t tough enough for the Kings to swallow, 33 seconds later they lost Ben Brar, their leading goalscorer, for the rest of the game. — see ‘IT HURTS, page 9

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