BROOKS, AB – One of the Brooks Bandits’ most well-remembered and accomplished alumni will return to Brooks on Friday, January 20th, the team announced today, as the Bandits organization unveiled its upcoming Chad Johnson Night at the Centennial Regional Arena.
Johnson himself will return to the city in which he spent his entire junior hockey career, and be the first inductee into the team’s new Smith Group Bandits Wall of Fame, a new level of recognition for team alumni and their accomplishments both with the Bandits and afterwards.
The Bandits will host the Calgary Mustangs that night, with a pre-game ceremony honouring Johnson scheduled to begin at the normal puck drop time of 7:00 PM. At 6:30 PM, the team will take to the ice for warmup wearing special Chad Johnson retro warmup jerseys, in the 2003-05 style he wore in his time with the team. Those jerseys will be sold and raffled off throughout the remainder of the season.
Johnson spent two seasons with the Bandits in 2003-04 and 2004-05, and in the latter became the first goaltender to backstop the team to the AJHL playoffs. That year, he posted a 25-16-2 record, 2.61 goals against average, and set the still-standing franchise record for save percentage at .923, while being named starting goalie for the South Division All-Star team.
Subsequent to his time with the Bandits, Johnson played four years for the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, where in his final season he was named Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) Player of the Year, a first-team all-star, and was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. Johnson then launched his professional career, which has included NHL stints with the New York Rangers, Phoenix Coyotes, Boston Bruins, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres, and now the Calgary Flames, totalling more than 120 NHL games played so far.
Tickets for Chad Johnson Night at the CRA are available online at tickets.brooksbandits.ca, by phone at (403) 501-0122, or in person at the Bandits’ marketing office in the arena.
