Bandits batten down the hatches, defeating Chilliwack to tie up BCHL Final

The Brooks Bandits in action Wendesday night against Chilliwack in the BCHL finals. (Photo: X@BrooksBandits)

The Bandits are returning to Brooks all tied up in their BCHL championship showdown against the Chilliwack Chiefs at two games apiece.

A night after suffering a crushing loss in double overtime, Brooks came out looking to dominate and in the first period, they controlled the action, firing 15 shots on the Chief goal. Thanks to a tip-in from Michal Liscinsky, the Bandits led 1-0 after one.

In the second, they doubled their lead to 2-0 on a power play goal from Luke Bibby, who redirected a shot from Ethan Beyer.

AJ Lacroix scored in the third to bump the lead up to 3-0, before Mateo Mrsic ruined Zahara’s shutout, making the score 3-1.

Nick Peluso found the empty net with just under two minutes to go to make the final score 4-1.

Zach Zahara stopped 27 of 28 shots in goal, many of them spectacular, to earn the victory.

The victory was redemption for the Bandits after their 5-4 loss Tuesday night in Chilliwack, despite a hat trick from Parker Lalonde and another stellar performance from Zahara, who stopped 46 shots.

The Bandits thought they’d won it in the first overtime when Lalonde scored what appeared to be his fourth goal of the game, but it was goaltender interference was called, nullifying the goal.

In the second overtime, Chilliwack captain Mateo Mrsic scored 13 minutes in to give the Chiefs the victory.

Next up is Game 5, which goes Friday night at 7 p.m. MT in Brooks. For tickets, go here.