Drew Worrad had a goal and two assists on the night, while Jack Johnson, Bradley Schoonbaert, and Austin Heidemann both notched two points each as the Steinbach Pistons got back in the win column Sunday night with a 5-2 win over the Neepawa Natives.
Matt Radomsky’s consecutive shutout minutes streak was snapped in the first period on a goal by Jordan Martin, however he was still solid in the net stopping 18 of 20 shots in the victory. Natives goalie Spencer Eschyschyn made 29 saves in the loss.
It was a good bounce back effort by Steinbach after coming off of a tough shootout loss on Friday night against the Oil Caps. The Natives’ Martin scored on the power play from a shot in the slot to make it 1-0 for Neepawa. The goal was his 9th of the season from Austin Friesen at the 11:29 mark of the first period.
The Pistons were able to equalize shortly after, as Bradley Schoonbaert buried a huge rebound off of Eschyschyn. His 25th of the season was assisted by Austin Heidemann and Worrad at 13:31. Then the top line struck again just 18 seconds later, as Worrad showed great hand-eye co-ordination to knock the puck out of the air and into the back of the net for the 2-1 lead. Heidemann and Schoonbaert picked up assists on Worrad’s 16th of the season. And with 15 seconds to go in the frame, Daniel McKitrick scored his 16th of the year from Jack Johnson and Braden Purtill to give Steinbach a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes.
Johnson scored his 9th on a 2-on-1 rush to extend the Pistons’ lead to 3. Worrad and Tanner Mole picked up assists at 13:25 of the second period. Then a crazy play happened as Riese Gaber got tangled up with a Natives defenseman in the corner. The Pistons’ bence was calling for a stoppage of play. No call ensued, and Breaden Binda sniped home his 13th of the season from Zach Johnson and Justin Metcalf at 15:16 of the frame. It was 4-2 Pistons after 40 minutes of play.
Radomsky and the Pistons defence did its job in the third, and the crowd went wild when Jack Lenchyshyn delivered an open-ice hit on a Neepawa forward in the neutral zone. Brady Tatro gave the Pistons an insurance marker, when his wrist shot from the blue line fooled Eschyschyn and rippled the twine. Tatro’s 13th of the season was assisted by Darby Gula with 3:56 to go in the game.
SPECIAL TEAMS
The one glaring issue in the game for the Pistons is that they couldn’t stay out of the box. The Natives ended up with 6 power plays in the game, scoring on one of them. Steinbach went 0/3 with the man advantage.
UP NEXT: The Pistons will practice tomorrow before heading to Winkler on Tuesday to play the Winkler Flyers at the Winkler Recreational Complex. The next home game for Steinbach is on January 24th against the Flyers at 7:30 pm.