Alexander Brooks has No. 9 Pine Creek hockey surging
Alexander Brooks is not an easy guy to miss on the ice. Even from a distance as he is dressed like his teammates and his helmet conceals his face, he can always be spotted.
Just look for the big guy who is seemingly involved in every scoring play for the Pine Creek Eagles hockey team.
He’s always around the net, he’s always trying to find his way around the opposing goalie or see where the puck might squirt off for a rebound.
He’s been near the top of the state in points all year and because of it, No. 9 Pine Creek has enjoyed a high level of success this year.
“I think that if I can do my part and contribute as much as I can, we can score a lot more goals,” Brooks said. “The same thing for my other teammates. I think my line helps me contribute as well.”
When looking for the Pine Creek captain, just listen for the modest guy.
Not once is he willing to accept full credit for the 14-1-1 record the Eagles currently hold. The lone loss came at the hands of Lewis-Palmer who sit directly behind the Eagles in the Summit League standings.
Brooks scored the first goal for Pine Creek and then assisted on the second. Then Pine Creek gave up five-straight power play goals. The Rangers went on to win the game 6-2. That game came immediately following a 3-3 tie with Battle Mountain.
Since then, the Eagles have rattled off seven straight wins and won each game by at least four goals. Brooks has scored 11 goals on his own and assisted on 11 others. Looking at that stretch, it can make someone wonder if a team like Pine Creek needs a guy like Brooks to play that well for the team to succeed.
“I don’t think so,” Brooks said. “In general, we just have a bunch of good guys. We have a solid group of players and we work really well together. That’s why we’re doing so well in the league.”
The Eagles certainly have other scorers on the team. Austin Sawyer has 34 points on the year, Trevor Porter has 28 and Austin Gipson has 27.
Those four players account for 46 of the Eagles’ 109 goals this year. With that kind of efficiency on offense and the goalie combination of Jacob Benton and Garrett Newlin surrendering just 19 total goals between the two of them, Pine Creek is looking to do something special in the next month.
“I think that we can go top-four at least,” Brooks said. “We’ve been practicing three to four times a week now and we’ve been focusing on the playoffs and doing the best we can so we can make it as far as possible.”
And he hopes that this can be the start of a long, successful run for the Eagles. Pine Creek made the 2018 playoffs, but lost 8-1 to Kent Denver in the first round. They didn’t make the bracket in 2017.
With this being his final run, Brooks intends on enjoying a playoff run and setting the tone for future Eagles teams.
“I just want try and do as much as I can for my team,” he said. “I want to leave an impact when I leave this year and I want to give this team some confidence for next year so they can keep carrying on the hockey legacy of Pine Creek.”
When trying to find one of the top scorers in the state, just look for the guy getting his teammates involved and setting a tone on the ice that he hopes will stick around for years to come.
