A shorthanded Chilliwack Chiefs squad missing three top-six forwards and one of its best defencemen was no match for the Alberta Hockey League champions, falling 5-2 to the Brooks Bandits on day one of the Western Canada Cup.
Kohen Olischefski, Tommy Lee, Kale Kane and Davis Bunz were all sidelined as their team ‘hosted’ Brooks Saturday afternoon at the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton.
Their absence was noticed as the Chiefs were out-shot 14-5 in the opening frame. Despite being badly outplayed, they were able to open the scoring on a goal by Anthony Vincent. The speedy forward went to the net and popped the rebound of a Will Calverley shot past Brooks netminder Mitchel Benson at 8:24.
Cale Makar, who will be a first round pick in this June’s National Hockey League draft, tied the game 4:38 into period two.
Makar fooled Chiefs goalie Mark Sinclair when he fanned on his attempt. A shot the dynamic D-man intended to put top shelf instead slipped through the legs of the netminder. Less than two minutes later Arnaud Vachon pursued a loose puck into the Chilliwack goal crease, punching it past Sinclair to give the Bandits a 2-1 lead.
Makar set up the third Brooks goal in the final minute of the middle frame.
With Jake Smith in the penalty box for slashing and the Bandits on the power play, Makar fired a shot into a screen of players in front of Sinclair. The puck hit a Brooks forward and took a bounce to Josh McKechney to the left of the Chiefs net. The Calgary native shoveled it past Sinclair with 9.9 seconds on the clock.
Brooks took a 5-1 lead early in the third with goals 20 seconds apart. With a delayed penalty coming up, Vachon set up Parker Foo on a back-door play, chasing Sinclair from the net. Backup Mathieu Caron took over in goal and promptly surrendered the fifth Bandits goal off the stick of Nick Prkusic.
Power play opportunities favoured Brooks 7-0 until late in the third period when Chilliwack finally got a man advantage. They took just 22 seconds to cash in on a Connor McCarthy goal, set up by Jordan Kawaguchi.
Captain K’s assist moved him past Gabe Gauthier for top spot on the all-time Chilliwack playoff scoring list and wrapped up the scoring.
Final shots on goal favoured Brooks 36-24.
The Chiefs have a day off before returning to action Monday night at 7 p.m. versus the Portage Terriers.