On do-or-die night in Brooks, Caelan Fitzpatrick comes up big to lead Bandits past Oilers

The Brooks Bandits won the seventh game against Okotoks Tuesday night to advance in the BCHL playoffs. (Photo: X@BrooksBandits)

Facing a Tuesday night elimination game, Caelan Fitzpatrick responded with a hat trick to lead the Brooks Bandits past the Okotoks Oilers 5-1.

The victory propelled the Bandits into the next round of the BCHL playoffs while it ended the Oilers’ first BCHL season.

The Bandits struck with just under 30 seconds left in the first, when Fitzpatrick got his first.

In the second Nathan Free doubled the lead to 2-0. Rylan Brown got one back for Okotoks to make it 2-1, but shortly after that, Fitzpatrick scored his second of the night to extend the lead.

Half a minute into the third, Nick Peluso scored to make it 4-1 and at 11:59, Fitzpatrick added his third goal of the night.

After the game, Fitzpatrick said playing the deciding game in Brooks helped the teams's confidence.

"We’ve only lost once at home, so the boys were confident so we knew we just had to stick to our game," Fitzpatrick said. "Play hard – it’s been a long, hard, series against them, they’ve been working hard – and we just stuck to our game tonight and it worked out."

Okotoks was able to continually fight back in the series, winning once in Brooks and then winning a Sunday night elimination game in Game 6 to force the seventh and deciding game Tuesday.

"There’s no easy playoff games," Fitzpatrick said. "Every night’s a battle and you’ve got to be consistent as you can – I thought that was one thing we struggled with this series, just finding our game and sticking to it every night, but I think we’ve learned from that and hopefully we can carry it into the next series.”

Brooks will take on the Sherwood Park Crusaders in the Alberta Division final.

The schedule has not yet been released.

In other Brooks-adjacent news, former Bandit Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche was nominated as a finalist for the James Norris Memorial Trophy -- awarded to the NHL's best defenceman -- for the fourth time in five years.

The Avalanche also won Tuesday night, defeating the Winnipeg Jets 6-3 to advance to the next round of the NHL Playoffs.