For the first time in BCHL history, the Fred Page Cup will be residing in Alberta this summer.
The Brooks Bandits captured the league championship with a 6-2 win over the Chilliwack Chiefs inside the Chilliwack Coliseum on Sunday (May 25) to win the series 4-2.
It's the first time that a team from outside British Columbia has won the crown since 2018, when Washington state's Wenatchee Wild defeated the Prince George Spruce Kings four games to one. The Bellingham Blazers from Washington won the league playoff championships in 1975 and 1979.
Brooks led 3-2 after one and then added two more in the second and one in the third to earn the win. The Chiefs got goals from Dustin Renas and Carter Anderson in the loss.
"It was not the end we were looking for, but your Chiefs fought a long, hard battle from September all the way to May," the organization said via Facebook after the game. "And we could not have made it as far as we did without our Chiefs fans."
Brooks had two goals from Luke Bibby and Nick Peluso and singles from Michal Liscinsky and and AJ Lacroix. Parker Lalonde had two assists to give him a league-best 31 playoff points, to go along with his BCHL-high 19 goals in 21 games. As a result, he was named the winner of the Jeff Tambellini Trophy as the playoff’s Most Valuable Player.
“It’s been a long four years for me with a lot of ups and downs,” said Lalonde. “We all came here to do a job at the start of the year. Being with some of these guys for the past two years…it’s unbelievable to do it with this group.”
Chiefs jumped out to two separate leads in the first period, with Dustin Renas scoring a power-play marker just 54 seconds in, and Carter Anderson regaining the lead for a a second time midway through the frame. But the Bandits battled back each time and took the lead for good on Peluso’s first of the game with 1:03 to play in the opening frame.
“They’re unbelievable players,” said Peluso, who finished just one point back of top spot in the playoff scoring race. “Me and Parker Lalonde have played together since I got here and developed a great chemistry, then Luke Bibby came in around the deadline (from the Vernon Vipers) and fit in just perfectly. We’re a tight group.”
Bandits defencemen Ethan Beyer and Keith McInnis finished the postseason tied for the most points among blueliners with 17 apiece. As team captain, Beyer accepted the Fred Page Cup from BCHL Commissioner Steven Cocker before being swarmed by his teammates.
“We worked so hard for this moment,” said Beyer. “We didn’t know what to expect, coming into the BCHL, but we knew this is what we wanted. I’m just so proud of this group.”
As for the Chiefs, they say they'll be back in the Coliseum in the fall and look forward to seeing fans again in September. The City of Chilliwack announced shortly before the playoffs that they would be taking ownership of the facility starting May 1.
-with files from BCHL
