SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. – Anthony Petruzzelli and Dakota Mason scored in the first period and the Brooks Bandits never looked back in a 3-1 victory over the Summerside Western Capitals on Sunday to win the RBC Cup, Canada’s junior A hockey championship.
Cam Maclise added an empty-net goal with 30 seconds left to play for Brooks, while Michael Fredrick made 17 saves for the win.
This was the Bandits first RBC Cup tournament.
Christopher Caissy replied for the host Western Capitals and Kevin Bailie stopped 33 shots.
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Summerside lost the national final on home ice for the second time in three tries. It fell to Thunder Bay in the 1989 championship game before beating South Surrey in 1997 for its only national crown.
Brooks jumped on the Western Capitals right out of the gate, taking a 2-0 lead before the first period reached its midway point.
First it was Petruzzelli, tapping a centring feed from Maclise into an open net to start the scoring at 7:17 before Mason found the five-hole on Bailie just 80 seconds later to double the lead.
The Western Capitals got one back at 10:20 when Caissy squeezed one past Fredrick, but that would be it for offence from the host team.
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The Bandits allowed Summerside just 18 shots on goal, 10 in the final 40 minutes and none in the first 12 minutes of the third period, when Brooks held on to a tenuous one-goal lead.
Maclise capped the scoring and clinched the win with just 29.6 seconds left, scoring into an empty net.
It was fitting it was Maclise who scored the final goal — the Bandits’ captain led the way from start to finish for Brooks, becoming the first player to win national player of the year honours and the national championship in the same season since Greg Johnson in 1989.
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