Dec 18, 2011 | Dan Culbert | 290 views
Bandits Move Into 3rd With Win
Missing 3 regulars and unable to fill the spots with AP players a shorthanded Contractors Rental Supply midget team traveled to London to take on the Bandits dropping a 5-0 decision.
Mistakes and a bit of bad luck lead to a 3-0 first period deficit for the 99ers and a hole they were unable to dig their way out of.
insert Smid
In their first meeting of the season, the quick skating Bandits were a real challenge for the 99ers as the home team carried the play for the majority of the first. The teams exchanged PP opportunities with the Bandits having the first just over 4 minutes in, and then 99ers had their opportunity about half way through the period, but good PK by both teams made for easy kills. The score remained at zeros until with just over 5 minutes to go, a 99er defenseman picked up a puck in his own zone and instead of clearing it, turned back and dumped a backhander behind his own net. The Bandits jumped on this, and fed it out front for a quick 1 timer and it was in the net before anyone could react. 40 seconds later, the 99ers goalies was late getting to the post and allowed a soft goal on a wrap around. Brantford then provided the Bandits with another opportunity with about a minute and a half to go in the period. The 99ers were having another good kill when bad luck struck. After winning a good puck battle, the clearing attempt hit the Ref and bounced to a Bandit player who fired it home with only 5 seconds to play in the period to dig the hole a bit deeper.
The second period was a bit chippy with a total of 11 penalties called. The Bandits increased their lead to 4-0 at 11:33 and on the following scrum took a penalty to give the 99ers an opportunity. Brantford could not get organized on the PP and went 0 for 4 for the period and 0 for 7 in the game, while the Bandits added another PP goal on a shot from the boards about midway through the period and were 1 for 3 in the period and 2 for 7 in the game.
There was no scoring in the third as both teams continued the chippy play but nothing major occurred.