Cumberland Bandits News > Game summaries by Sean McCauley

Saturday night hockey at the Ray Friel complex welcomed the Gatineau Express to town. This marked the return of James Campbell to the Bandits home arena, although it may be a return he, along with his teammates, will want to soon forget.

            Off the opening faceoff the Bandits began dominating, powering the puck past the Express defenders and deep into the zone. The passing was crisp, and the skating was fast. Kevin Joyce managed to tuck the puck into an empty net after a beautiful cross crease pass was delivered to the winger standing all alone at the side of the net, giving the Bandits a one to nothing lead mid way through the period. The power play unit then took to the ice for the third time of the period, and Chris Duncan reaped the reward. Duncan standing all alone collected a cross ice pass and buried it into the open side, a mirror image of the Kevin Joyce goal earlier that period. The Bandits then got themselves into penalty trouble, although it didn�t seem to matter with the goaltending efforts of Kalen Sinha and defensive efforts of Chris Boileau. Boileau managed to collect the puck along the side boards, chip it up off of the Express defenders glove, right onto the stick of Chris Lawlor. Lawlor then made a perfect shot to the right side of the net for the shorthanded marker.

            The second period saw the Bandits start off on the short side of a five on three that lasted for over four minutes. During that time, Michael Gollop stole the puck away from the Express defender at the blue line, skated in, faked forehand, and tucked it away with a backhand over the sprawled out goaltender for another shorthanded goal. The goal all but put the game out of reach for the Express, who spent the night trying to slow down the Bandits with hits. Max Damour was shadowed all night, but it didn�t stop him from powering past a defender, and following up on his own rebound to tuck in a beautiful wrap around mid way through the second. The period also saw Chris Lawlor and Dylan Atkinson both get robbed on breakaways.

            The third period saw the Express come out hard, in a late effort to get something on the board. Kalen Sinha would have nothing of it. Stopping all ten shots he faced in the period. In total Sinha managed to turn away all twenty one shots the Express fired at him, including many third period scrambles that saw him make two or three saves at a time. The Bandits managed to fire five goals into the net on thirty seven shots. One game highlight was when a member of the Gatineau Express decided to take a long, late run at Bandits new comer Derek Martin. Martin simply stood his ground, and used his strength and balance to flatten the forward to the ice. A great way to cap off a shutout victory!

 Written by Sean McCauley