BROOKS, AB – The Brooks Bandits have released further details about the team’s upcoming Chad Johnson Night on Friday, January 20th, at which one of the team’s most accomplished alumni will return to become the first inductee into the team’s new Smith Group Bandits Wall of Fame.
Bandit fans will have the chance to meet one of the organization’s biggest-ever fan favourites in a pre-game autograph session at the Centennial Regional Arena beginning at 6:00 PM and lasting until just after 6:20 PM. Gates will open at 5:30 PM for ticket holders to get a spot in line, with the autograph session occurring on the CRA concourse on the bench side of the ice.
The night will begin with a pre-game ceremony and video tribute to Johnson, honouring his two seasons with the Bandits, in which he backstopped the team to its first-ever playoff appearance in 2004-05, and also set the franchise’s still-standing save percentage record for a single season at .923. After his all-star season with the Bandits, Johnson spent four years at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks before embarking on a more than 120-game NHL career that now finds him with the nearby Calgary Flames.
“I am truly humbled and honoured to receive this distinction from the Brooks Bandits,” said Johnson. “The organization provided my family and me with some great memories during my two years with the club and helped pave the way for me to become the goalie I am today.
“I look forward to re-connecting with the Bandits fans tomorrow night and offer my sincere thanks for all they have done.”
In addition to the pre-game ceremony and induction, the team will honour Johnson with special warmup jerseys when they take the ice at 6:30 PM, in the retro navy style that the Bandits wore during Johnson’s time from 2003 to 2005. Fans will have opportunities to acquire one of these unique Chad Johnson Bandit jerseys over the remainder of the 2016-17 season.
The Bandits will take on the Calgary Mustangs at 7:00 PM in the game that night, hoping to avenge the team’s most recent regulation loss, which was in late October to the same Mustangs team.
For media partners, the team will host a media availability with Chad Johnson approximately 5 minutes into the 1st intermission, in the Bandits Suite next to the media suite on the penalty box side of the ice.
Tickets for Chad Johnson Night are still available online at tickets.brooksbandits.ca, in person at the Bandits office at the CRA, or by phone at (403) 501-0122.