With two more victories last weekend, Corvan Stewart and the Lloydminster Bandits maintained their one-point edge on the Vermilion Tigers atop the Northeastern Alberta Junior B Hockey League standings.
Back-to-back hat tricks from Stewart enabled the Bandits to defeat the Cold Lake Ice 7-4 at home Friday in the Hub and rip the last-place Vegreville Rangers 13-4 on the road Saturday.
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“Corvan is an absolute workhorse,” said Bandits coach Josh Dudding. “We always bug him that his pants are magnetic — the puck just seems to follow him. I think that’s just a characteristic of how hard he works.
“He’s one of those guys that can work in any situation. He’s played power play, PK, he’s been going on any one of the lines — one to four — and he’s played defence for us when needed, too.”
Stewart and Adryan Bugiera, with a goal and four assists, each had five-point nights in Saturday’s rout. Cole Kelly contributed two goals and an assist, while Jake Redden and Joel Webb each scored once as part of their three-point games. Bronson Parker, Cayden Wildeman and Jace Schmidt each potted a goal and an assist, and Cash Parkin collected three helpers.
The other Lloyd scorers were Cohen Aultman and Tyson Ziegler.
Carson Tourand, with 21 saves, was a winner in his debut between the Bandits’ pipes.
His teammates fired a combined 52 shots at two Vegreville goaltenders, Andrew Bezaire and Riley Warawa.
Kaylum Roberts, with two goals and an assist, and Ashton Butts, with a goal and two assists, each counted three-point nights for the Rangers.
Ty Partington scored the other goal for Vegreville, which has won just once in 27 games this season.
On the flip side, Lloydminster (22-5) is in a tight race for first place.
The Bandits maintained their one-point edge on Vermilion (20-3-3), despite the Tigers also winning twice last weekend. Vermilion topped the St. Paul Canadians 6-2 on the road Saturday, after beating Vegreville 8-2 at home Friday.
The Wainwright Bisons (18-3-4) sit in third place, four points behind league-leading Lloyd. The Bisons posted a 3-2 victory over fifth-place St. Paul (10-16) on Friday in Wainwright’s lone game last weekend.
Fourth-place Cold Lake (12-14-1) came to the Border City on Friday night in the first January action for both the Ice and the Bandits.
Back home on Saturday night, Cold Lake went on to blank the Killam Wheat Kings 5-0. Killam (9-15-2) is tied in points with St. Paul for fifth spot in the standings.
Including his hat-trick goal with 1:26 remaining, Stewart opened and closed the Lloyd scoring Friday at the Hub. In between, he netted a short-handed tally en route to his first three-goal game in junior B hockey.
Stewart’s older brother, Shae, blocked 19 shots to record his 11th victory in net this season.
Bugiera tallied twice for the Bandits, while Webb picked up a goal and two assists. Kelly also scored and Wildeman and Jayden Plamondon each set up two goals.
Mark Peddle, with 35 stops, faced 42 shots in Cold Lake’s net. The Ice got goals from Cody Pikowicz, Brett Gascoigne, Noah Fedor and Kamden Brunet, with his first of the year.
‘EFFORT HAS GOT TO BE FIRST AND FOREMOST’
After an extended Christmas break that lasted almost three weeks, the Bandits weren’t sure how they would react to such a break.
“It’s kind of a double-edged sword sometimes,” coach Dudding said after Friday’s game. “It’s nice to get those breaks. The guys get to heal up and spend some time with wives, girlfriends, kids, family and stuff like that, over Christmas, which is great.
“But tonight was good. Our message in (the dressing room) was effort has got to be first and foremost. We know there’s going to be a few breakdowns here and there, just from not being back in game mode yet, shaking some rust off. It was nice to come out with the win.”
The Bandits answered the bell, spurred in part by some line-juggling to kick off the new year.
“We had a little bit of an experiment tonight and put Bugiera on the wing for probably the first time in his career. That was good. That line had a lot of success, with he and Wildeman and (Aidan) Martens. They had a big night.
“Then, I call them the old-boy line, with Webb, Plamondon and Corvan (Stewart), they all had big nights. I believe that was Corvan’s first hat trick … in a Bandit uniform.”
The coaching staff made sure Stewart was on the ice in the late going Friday, with the first of his two hat tricks within reach.
“When you see guys getting a hat trick in any league, usually it’s pretty rare, so if there’s an extra shift maybe at the end of the game, where a guy has an opportunity, you kind of lean their way,” Dudding said about that milestone.
“At the end of the day, in the big scheme of things, it might not seem like a big thing. But when you look back on certain things, I’m sure it’ll be a memory for him.”
The Bandits are making big-time memories this season. They’re set to host the Alberta junior B championship at the Hub during the first week of April. As their top standing indicates, they hope to go into those provincials through the front door, as the league champions.
CROWDED AT THE TOP
It’s been an intense three-way battle for first between Lloydminster, Vermilion and Wainwright through the first half of the season.
“Yeah, we’ve had Wainwright’s number a few times this season,” Dudding said. “I don’t know if it’s from (recent history). We’ve played them two or three years in the playoffs, so that rivalry is there, for sure.
“And then, honestly, Verm has kind of had that number on us for more of the season, but I think our message — starting now and not starting in playoffs — is that we’ve got to have a playoff mentality every night.
“You’re not going to win this league on skill (alone). You’ve got to get to the dirty areas and play physical, so that’s what we’re hoping to do.”
The Bandits are back home this weekend for two games — 7:30 p.m. Saturday against St. Paul and 2:30 p.m. Sunday versus Killam.
A couple of heavyweights face each other Friday night when Wainwright visits Vermilion.
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