A winning streak was bound to come to an end Friday night at the Civic Centre, unfortunately for the Lloydminster Bobcats, it was their five game win streak that was halted, while the Brooks Bandits collected an eleventh straight victory.
With the two clubs squaring off in Lloydminster, the Bandits skated away with a 5-2 win over the home team.
Although in a losing effort, it didn’t take the Bobcats long to get on the board as they drew first blood.
Just 1:30 into the contest, Shawn Harke chased down a puck in the Brooks corner and sent it on goal. It then deflected off the skate of Daniel Hilsendager and past Bandit’s goalie Mitch Benson to give the Bobcats their first goal against Brooks sine the 2015/16 season.
However, the lead was short-lived.
1:10 after Hilsendager put the Cats on the board, Brooks responded when Shane Bear got the puck past Pierce Diamond to tie the game 1-1.
Then just 1:14 after that, Mack Hancock game the Bandits the lead when he knocked a loose puck into the back of the net for his first goal of the season.
With the first period winding down and the Bandits on the power-play, Brooks managed to extend their lead at the last possible moment.
Right as the buzzer sounded to end the first, Nathan Plessis whacked a rebound past Diamond, and after a brief discussion amongst the officials, the goal stood to send the Bandits into the intermission up 3-1.
Brooks added to their advantage in the second period with a pair of goals. One off the stick of Nic Hamre and the other from Simon Boyko, which bought an end to Diamond’s night.
Trailing 5-1 in the third, the Bobcats scored perhaps the prettiest goal of the evening as Zach Kaiser passed the puck to Tucker Scantlebury, who tipped it onto the stick of Kobe Walker and the Bobcats leading scored made no mistake to trim the deficit to 5-2.
Unfortunately for the Cats, that is as close as they would get.
In the end the Bandits outshot Lloydminster 39-20.
Lloydminster finished the game 1 for 5 on the power-play, while Brooks went 2 for 9.
The Bobcats will resume their schedule on Saturday night when they host the Whitecourt Wolverines.