Brooks 3 Olds 0
OLDS — The Olds Grizzlys might have deserved a better fate than being swept by the Brooks Bandits in the Alberta Junior Hockey League South Division final.
“Other than the first game of the series we competed every night,” said Grizzlys head coach Brett Hopfe, after his club fell 3-0 to the Brooks Bandits before 711 fans Tuesday at the Sports Complex, a result that gave the visitors a 4-0 win in the best-of-seven series.
Indeed, the Grizzlys were competitive in the second to fourth games after giving up four power-play goals in a series-opening 7-1 loss at Brooks.
“I thought it was unfair with the amount of power plays that were awarded to them (Bandits) in the first game,” said Hopfe.
“Other than that, we played hard and gave ourselves a chance to win every night. A bounce here or a bounce there and it could have been a different story, but it didn’t turn out that way.”
On Tuesday, the Bandits got second-period goals from Patrick Lee and Colton Semenok (power play) and all but sealed the deal when RJ Reed connected just 1:59 into the third period.
Jan Obernesser turned aside 21 shots to record the shutout. Olds netminder Brandon Thiessen made 26 saves, including several of the difficult variety.
The Bandits will take on either the Fort McMurray Oil Barons or the Spruce Grove Saints in the AJHL championship series.
The Oil Barons slipped past the Saints 4-3 Tuesday at Fort McMurray to square the North Division final at 2-2.