The Blackfalds Bulldogs hosted the Brooks Bandits on Sunday for their annual Teddy Bear Toss game. Coming off a tough night before, the Bulldogs looked noticeably beat up and sluggish, and they were without two players serving suspensions from Saturday’s game. Even though Blackfalds started strong, Brooks capitalized on some fortunate bounces. Honestly, the Bandits didn’t play particularly well themselves – the Bulldogs just had an uncharacteristically bad night, likely because they were tired, injured, and short-handed. It was painful to watch at times. The Bulldogs kept firing shots right into the crest on the Brooks goalie’s chest like they were aiming for it. I get they are looking for rebounds but they should of realized Zahara is not giving them out that easy and Plan B should be implemented. On a couple of golden chances they had wide-open nets but hesitated, waiting until the goalie was set before shooting – giving him easy saves instead of burying it in the empty cage. Frustrating game all around, especially since it came right after a poorly attended Saturday night and this one actually had a great crowd for the teddy bear toss. Ironic timing. That said, good on the Brooks players for jumping in and helping pick up all the bears after the goal – classy move. This year’s Bandits team is definitely a different group than we’ve seen from them in recent years, in a lot of ways. Blackfalds will shake this one off. They’ll be ready to bounce back this weekend against Spruce Grove.
Former Peterborough Pete Nicolas Addy made it a 1-0 game at 2:54 of the first period with the assists on the goal going to Michael Kucherawy and Latvian Krists Retenais.
Princeton commit Jack Rosensteel makes it a 2-0 game for the Bandits shorthanded after capitalizing on a Bulldogs Boo Boo play.
Shots on goal in the first period were 12-8 for the Bulldogs
Nicholas Addy got his second goal of the game to make it 2-0 at 6:58 of the second period with the assists on the goal going to Connor Paronuzzi and Isaac Johnson.
Shots on goal in the second period were 10-9 for Brooks
Thomas Neu gets the Teddy Bear Toss goal at 14:02 of the third period with the assists on the goal going to Matthew Croxall and Radoslav Dimitrov
Shots on goal in the third period were 11-7 for the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs outshot the Bandits 32-25. About 90% of the Bulldogs shots were fired directly square into Zahara’s chest like they were aiming for the Bandit logo.
Zach Zahara made 31 saves on the 32 shots he faced for the win for the Bandits. For the Bulldogs Carson Mertz stopped 22 of the 25 shots that he faced.
Three Stars of the game 1) Nicholas Addy 2) Thomas Neu 3) Jack Rosensteel The game listed Zahara as a star. Zahara is a great goalie no question about it. He didn’t even move this game. I bet the only time he even broke a sweat is when he helped clean up the bears on the ice in the third period.
Attendance in Blackfalds was 702
Bulldogs next game is Friday December 12th in Spruce Grove against the Saints. Their next home game is not until January 2nd, 2026 when the West Kelowna Warriors come into town.
