Tom Keca discusses a 4-3 OT loss to Brooks on the ROCK 97.9 post-game show
The Brooks Bandits outshot, outskated and outplayed a young Oil Barons squad for long stretches of play last night but they needed overtime to beat the MOB 4-3 thanks to brilliant goaltending from Eric Szudor.
“He [Szudor] was just outstanding he made some great stops but now having said that I thought that our guys did a fairly good job of trying to tie up those big heavy guys and tried to eliminate second and third,” said Tom Keca, Oil Barons Head Coach on the ROCK 97.9 post-game show. “We had a little bit of a hunch that [Szudor] was going to play well and he did.”
Szudor put on a circus act pushing away 39 of 43 shots faced against a high-octane, fast-flying Bandits squad.
The overtime winning goal was scored by Jared Cockrell after a chance at the other end for the MOB. Mark Drohan was caught at the end of his shift and Cockrell hammered home a Cale Makar rebound on a two on one.
“This is the game of hockey when you’re on three on three we have a chance at one end then it’s right back on us and he gets a step on us, we have a guy right there but unfortunately it’s at the end of a shift and unfortunately they were able to get the rebound there,” said Keca.
Jordan Funk scored the goal that tied the game at three with just 1:41 left in the third period, that goal followed an Austin Holmes marker that came 4:12 before to pull the club within a goal. Funk scored from the doorstep in his first Oil Barons game, it was also the first match for newly acquired centreman Ben Sharf.
“Very good on faceoffs [Sharf] came as advertised had a couple of good shifts, obviously was in on the Holmes goal and then [Funk] scores the big one,” noted Keca on the play of his two new players. “Two guys that are going to fit in nicely when we get a little more practice time, and we get our systems down and we get a little more experienced, I like the shape of the team.”
Jackson McKinstry opened the scoring for the Oil Barons to tie the game at one late in the first period, it was his first of the season. Will Conley, Logan Aasman, and Dylan McCrory were the other goal scorers for Brooks.
“I like the steps that we took today, if this is one of the top teams in Canada and we can get points off them the future still looks bright for us,” said Keca.
The Oil Barons will look for their first win against the Calgary Mustangs Saturday (Sep. 26) at the Casman Centre. Puck drop is at 8 p.m. If you can’t make the match you can tune into the pre-game show starting at 7:45 p.m. on ROCK 97.9.
