Zach Zahara earned his first BCHL playoff shutout and first star of the week Parker Lalonde scored twice as the Brooks Bandits secured a 4-0 victory over the Sherwood Park Crusaders on Tuesday at the Randy Rosen Rink.
Zahara stopped all 24 shots he faced and was named first star.
In the opening frame, it took just less than two minutes as Lalonde struck first to go up 1-0. Just moments later, Zach Zahara made a highlight reel scorpion save to shut down Jeremy Loranger at the back door to keep the Crusaders off the board. Later in the period, Lalonde secured his 7th goal of the playoffs after Venne got caught out of his crease and poked the puck into a Sherwood Park defenseman’s skate and it was deflected back into their own net.
In the middle frame, the lone goal scorer was Cooper Pierson as he walked in on the left circle and fired the wrist shot top corner on the far side on the powerplay to extend the lead to 3-0. The Bandits outshot the Crusaders 17-8 in the 2nd period.
In the final period, Luke Bibby got an insurance marker as he scored on the powerplay for his 5th of the playoffs.
The Bandits secured a 4-0 win to go up 3-0 in the series and have the chance to close it out against the Crusaders tomorrow, April 23 at 7 PM.
