Maple Leafs prospect and Regina Pats captain Adam Brooks has been named the WHL Player of the Week for the week ending April 30, 2017.
It is the third time Brooks has received the honour his season. He recorded eight points (one goal, seven assists) in four games this past week, helping the Regina Pats clinch the Eastern Conference title.
It was just a couple of weeks ago that Brooks suffered a leg injury in the previous round against the Swift Current Broncos. It looked as if his junior career was over, with the Brooks-less Pats down 3-1 to the Broncos at one point. They battled back without their captain and managed to rattle off three straight wins to move on to an Eastern Conference Finals matchup against the hot Lethbridge Hurricanes.
Brooks didn’t skate in Game 1 of the Conference Finals due to his leg injury, but he returned for Game 2. In his first game back, he went on to score the OT winner off a feed from Rangers prospect, Sergey Zborovskiy.
Adam Brooks is Captain Clutch. OT winner for the Pats to tie the series at 1 pic.twitter.com/0epD4zDGVU
— Future Of The Six (@FutureOfTheSix) April 23, 2017
Brooks was held pointless in Game 3 of the series but he bounced back in Game 4, scoring three points, including the eventual game-winning goal to knot the series up at 2-2.
Game 5 proved to be another dominant performance by Brooks as he tallied four assists including a backhand pass that found Dawson Leedahl in front of the net for the game-winner.
Adam Brooks finds Dawson Leedahl in front for what would be the game-winning goal pic.twitter.com/esW0mPbeAY
— Future Of The Six (@FutureOfThe6) April 29, 2017
The Pats went on to clinch the series in Game 6, with Brooks picking up an assist on the game-winner yet again. He played five of six games in the WHL Eastern Conference Finals, was named the first star in three of those games, and he recorded a point on three of the game-winning goals. Not bad for a player who was sidelined with a leg injury for over two weeks before the series began.
Adam Brooks finds Jeff de Wit for what would go down as the game-winner. Pats move on to compete for the Ed Chynoweth Cup pic.twitter.com/W6PeULlTXg
— Future Of The Six (@FutureOfThe6) May 1, 2017
Brooks and the Regina Pats will take on the Seattle Thunderbirds for the Ed Chynoweth Cup in a series beginning on Friday, May 5. It will be a tough battle between two well-seasoned WHL heavyweights. The Pats are looking to win their first WHL title since 1980 and punch their ticket to the Memorial Cup in Windsor later this month.
