Wallace, Bandits celebrate Centennial Cup success

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This article was published 31/05/2022 (1404 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been an exciting couple of days for Oak Lake’s Hunter Wallace and his teammates on the Brooks Bandits.

After capturing the team’s third Centennial Cup title on Sunday evening in Estevan, Sask., the players and staff returned to a hero’s welcome at their home rink Monday.

The Bandits — who also won their fifth Alberta Junior Hockey League championship this season — had a parade through Brooks on Tuesday and were the guests of honour later that night of the Brooks Bombers baseball team, who compete in the Western Canadian Baseball League.

“We’re all heading back to our hometowns at the end of this week, so we’re saying our goodbyes and trying to take everything in here at the moment,” Wallace said.

“It’s been a little crazy at times but it has been great to see everyone supporting us here in Brooks and to have everyone give their congratulations ever since we got back from Estevan.”

Having entered the tournament as the favourites, the Bandits lived up to their billing as they regained the title they won on home ice in 2019. (The Centennial Cup was not awarded in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)

They outscored their Group A opponents by a 29-7 margin to post a 4-0 record and cruised to the final with an 11-2 rout over Longueuil College Francais of the Quebec Junior Hockey League in Saturday’s semi.

While the Bandits were dominant in their wins, Wallace felt that he and his teammates were a little nervous at the start of the event.

“To be honest, I think we were going through the motions a little bit,” Wallace said. “Even though we weren’t playing to the best of our abilities, we were still able to score goals, which was awesome to see.

“Obviously our big line of T.J. (Hughes), Devin (Phillips) and Ryan (McAllister) did a lot of damage, but we had depth scoring up and down our lineup. I don’t think it was a huge surprise that we were very effective up front. If we go in and play how we play, we’re a super-offensive team.”

It did take a little bit for the Bandits to find the back of the net in Sunday’s final, as they trailed the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Pickering Panthers by a score of 1-0 after 40 minutes of play, despite holding a 28-4 shot advantage.

When Wallace’s linemate Aiden Fink finally solved Panthers netminder Zachary Roy at the 6:54 mark of the third period, the floodgates opened.

Phillips scored 14 seconds later and the Bandits never looked back as they potted two more goals in the final frame on their way to the title.

“During the intermission, our coaches told us that once we got that first one, everything would start to roll in our direction as Pickering would have to change their style of game,” Wallace said.

“The Panthers defence did a great job of locking things down in the first two periods, but once Aiden scored, you could just feel the energy pick up on our bench and the complexion of the game totally changed.”

Although he missed the final group game against the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Estevan Bruins to heal up a nagging injury, Wallace finished the week with two goals and two assists in five contests as he went about his job of trying to help the Bandits in any way that he could.

“It didn’t matter for me if I was chipping in with secondary scoring or being physical out on the ice,” Wallace said. “I wanted to do anything to help get our guys going.”

As the Bandits look to win a third straight national title and become the first team to win the Centennial Cup in consecutive years since the British Columbia Hockey League’s Vernon Vipers accomplished that feat in 2009 and 2010, Wallace will move into a different role for the team.

The 19-year-old forward and future member of Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers will be one of the leaders for the Bandits as they begin their quest to Portage la Prairie next spring.

“I’m excited for those challenges that are going to come, especially with what I’ve learned this past year from our leadership group,” Wallace said.

“They played a huge role in getting us new guys used to what it takes to be successful in Brooks and they are what led us to winning an AJHL and national title. I’m looking forward to following in their footsteps.”

ICINGS: The Bandits scored 44 goals in six games, which broke the previous record of 43 set by the BCHL’s New Westminster Royals in 1990. The host Royals lost in the final to the Vernon Lakers.

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