When the Brooks Bandits scored their third goal in the first eight minutes of the game—after Brooks' Brandon Bruce snuck the puck through the slimmest of slots between Ethan Jemieff's left blocker pad and the right net post— the Olds Grizzlys were ready to pull their veteran goaltender.
With Jake Tamagi stepping in to relieve Jemieff, the Grizzlys' fortunes improved for the rest of the first period of their Dec. 17 game in Olds against the AJHL's south division-leading Bandits.
Austin Kernahan cut Brooks' lead to two when he took advantage of an interference penalty handed to Bandits forward Alex Roberts and scored a power-play goal right off a faceoff in Bandits territory.
And Tamagi only surrendered one goal before the clock ran down to the first intermission when Jake Larson popped out of a scramble in front of the Grizzlys net after Olds couldn't clear the puck and made it 4-1 for Brooks.
But the Bandits kept relentless pressure on Tamagi throughout the second period and increased their lead to four goals at the 8:40 mark when Anthony Petruzzelli picked off a pass at the Grizzlys' blue line and bolted to the net to score a short-handed goal during a holding penalty against Brooks.
Petruzzelli found the net again at 6:11 in the second frame when he blasted a shot that just nicked the tip of Tamagi's outstretched glove to wobble into the Olds goal.
The Grizzlys' only other goal of the night came early in the third period when Brooks was down two men after racking up penalties for interference and hooking.
Olds captain Spencer Dorowicz was able to punish the outnumbered Bandits when he recovered a rebound and slapped it home to make the game 6-2, a score that would last to the buzzer.
Grizzlys head coach Brett Hopfe said his team was “ill prepared in the first half of the game and that cost us,” adding the squad didn't find its footing until the third period.
Despite the loss, and a continuing trend where the Grizzlys win a game and lose a game on a weekly basis, Hopfe said his team is playing “extremely well,” especially given its young age.
He added the reason the squad has not been able to escape the bottom half of the standings in the league's south division is because the “league is tight.”
“For the last month-and-a-half we've been winning two out of three games,” Hopfe said. “The only issue is that everyone else in the south is doing the same thing.
“We're a young team and we're going to take our bumps and bruises and that's part of learning.”
Since a five-game losing streak in October that snapped on Oct. 22, the Grizzlys have not won, nor lost, more than two games in a row.
They have not won more than two games in a row all season.
With the team “being built” this season, players are improving their skills every day and Hopfe said he's certain efforts made now to better the team in areas such as power plays and penalty killing will pay off and move Olds up the standings later in the season.
“We're just looking to grow and learn from these experiences. I think eventually as the guys get more confidence, more games under their belt, you'll see with the amount of skill and talent that we have with this roster that we are going to be stringing some wins together here. I've got no doubt in my mind.”
Olds had its revenge on the Bandits in Brooks on Dec. 20 with a 3-2 overtime win thanks to an extra-frame goal from Ty Mappin.
The other goals came from Chris Gerrie and Landon Kletke.
This was the Grizzlys' first win over the Bandits this season.
The celebration was short-lived, however, as the following night the Grizzlys returned home to face the Sherwood Park Crusaders, with Tamagi giving Jemieff the night off in net.
Both teams racked up 30 minutes of fighting penalties in the first period but only the Crusaders put goals on the scoreboards and ended the frame with a 2-0 lead.
The brawling petered out in the second period when Sherwood Park scored another pair of goals.
Only Dorowicz, who is currently the AJHL's leading scorer with 26 goals, found the back of the Sherwood Park net in the third period.
After an empty-net goal with only 54 seconds left, the Crusaders walked away with a 5-1 victory.
Olds was in seventh place in the south division as of Dec. 23 with a record of 16 wins, 18 losses and six overtime losses.
Hopfe also addressed a squabble that was observable between the coaches of both teams late in the third period of the Dec. 17 game with Brooks that spilled out into the dressing room area on the lower level of the Olds Sports Complex following the game.
“Things were said to some players on our bench by their staff,” he said. “When these kids are 16 to 20 (years old) a 35-year-old shouldn't be beaking at a kid who is on the ice. It's a heated game and that stuff happens.”
Ryan Papaioannou, the Bandits' head coach, said in a telephone interview the day after the game that the matter was “not something we really need to comment on” and added the Grizzlys' concerns were “probably just speculation.”
“A lot of things are said between benches and players,” he said. “It's the game. Some people can manage their emotions and some can't. To us, it's not really an issue.”
The Grizzlys return to the ice in the new year with a home game against the Drumheller Dragons on Jan. 4.
