Vernon, BC (December 6, 2024) – The Brooks Bandits had a monster first period, scoring five goals en route to a 6-3 win over the Vernon Vipers on Friday at Kal Tire Place.
Goaltender Mikus Vecvanags made 25 saves, while newly signed forward Caden Drury scored a hat trick in his debut as the Bandits picked up their 19th win of the season.
The first period had a fast start to it as the Bandits came out on the front foot with early chances. Just six minutes in, Caden Drury tapped home his first goal with the Bandits in his first game in the BCHL. Less than two minutes later Nathan Brown picked up the puck on 2 on 1 and fired home the top corner wrist to double up the Bandits lead. Just after the halfway mark, Caden Drury scored his 2nd goal of the game on a 4 on 3 powerplay to increase the Bandits lead to 3-0. On a delayed penalty call, the Bandits broke out 5 on 2 and A.J Lacroix made no mistake firing home the wrist shot over the blocker side of Jari Kykkanen. Less than one minute later, Nick Peluso drove to the net and backhanded a shot on target which came right back out in front and collected his own rebound to make it 5-0 Bandits. In the last 30 seconds of the period Will Schumacher scored his 9th on the season to get the Vipers on the board.
The second period had a Vipers pushback as they came out on the front foot scoring halfway through the period to cut the deficit to four goals. Just moments later Drury picked up the bouncing puck on the right side of the net and fired home his hat trick goal to increase the lead to 6-2 for the Bandits. The vipers would not give up there as MacDonald scored only 25 seconds later to make it 6-3.
The third had no scoring as both teams had chances but both goaltenders shut the door.
The Bandits snapped a three game losing streak with the win in Vernon, improving to 19-4 on the season. The team heads North to Salmon Arm to take on the Silverbacks tomorrow, December 7th at 6 PM PST.
Lisa Mazurek Photography.
