2019 NJAC Recap: May 16

The preliminary round at the 2019 National Junior A Championship is in the books. The Oakville Blades flexed their offensive muscle in a win over the Ottawa Jr. Senators, while the Brooks Bandits finished a perfect prelims with a thrilling victory over the Prince George Spruce Kings.

OAKVILLE BLADES 7, OTTAWA JR. SENATORS 4
Peyton Reeves scored once in each period to spark the Blades to a win over the Ottawa Jr. Senators on Thursday afternoon and third place in the preliminary round. Kyle Potts added a goal and two assists for Oakville, which is into the final four for the first time in three all-time trips to the tournament.

“The message going into the game was to use it as a building block, work on the things we need to improve on and we were able to do that. At the end of the day, the objective is to go out there and win. We’re still expecting that out of our guys and we’d much rather finish third than fourth. There was something on the line and that’s why we were able to execute tonight.”
-- Reeves on using the game to prepare for the semifinals

BROOKS BANDITS 3, PRINCE GEORGE SPRUCE KINGS 1
Andrew Lucas scored the game-winning goal with just under 13 minutes to go, giving the Bandits a win over the Spruce Kings on Thursday night and a perfect prelim record. Carter Wolski and Brandon Scanlin had the other goals for Brooks, which outshot Prince George 11-4 in the decisive third period.

“We definitely spent time killing penalties tonight, which took away from some of the flow and our energy, but I thought our guys did a good job sticking with it. I do like how we played tonight, it was similar to Games 2 and 3 of the Doyle Cup that were here. They’re definitely a real hard team to play against in Prince George and we’re a hard team to play against here. It’s fun to be back at home, but they definitely present a huge challenge to us.”
-- Ryan Papaioannou, Brooks head coach, on facing the Spruce Kings

STANDINGS
Brooks Bandits 4-0-0-0 | 17GF 8GA | 12 points
Prince George Spruce Kings 3-0-0-1 | 15GF 5GA | 9 points
Oakville Blades 2-0-0-2 | 16GF 20GA | 6 points
Ottawa Jr. Senators 1-0-0-3 | 6GF 13GA | 3 points
Portage Terriers 0-0-0-4 | 8GF 18GA | 0 points

LEADING SCORERS
Spencer Kersten (Oakville) 1G 5A 6P
Peyton Reeves (Oakville) 4G 1A 5P
Ben Brar (Prince George) 2G 3A 5P
Ryan Mahshie (Brooks) 1G 4A 5P
Garrett Pyke (Oakville) 0G 5A 5P

LEADING GOALTENDERS
Logan Neaton (Prince George) 3-1 / 0.90 GAA / .955 SV%
Pierce Charleson (Brooks) 4-0 / 2.00 GAA / .882 SV%
Francis Boisvert (Ottawa) 1-3 / 2.25 GAA / .928 SV%
Chris Elliot (Oakville) 1-0 / 3.43 GAA / .879 SV%
Nathan Moore (Portage) 0-3 / 3.51 GAA / .894 SV%

STAR OF THE DAY
Peyton Reeves – Oakville Blades

NEXT GAMES (SATURDAY)
Ottawa Jr. Senators vs. Brooks Bandits (2 p.m. MT) – STATISTICS & WEBCAST
Oakville Blades vs. Prince George Spruce Kings (7 p.m. MT) – STATISTICS & WEBCAST