The Winnipeg Blues scored four third period goals en route to avoiding a Pistons series sweep with a 6-1 win on Thursday night at the BellMTS Iceplex.
Blues goaltender Jeremy Link had his best game of the series with 25 saves. Matt Radomsky was saddled with the loss, as he allowed five goals on thirty shots before being relieved by backup Matt Lenz who stopped two of three shots.
Winnipeg got on the board just 2:06 into the game, as Nathan Adrian popped home his second of the playoffs unassisted.
Steinbach would respond at the 8:22 mark, as Tristan Culleton made a nice play in the neutral zone to find Easton Bennett. Bennett shot the puck at the far pad of Link, and the rebound ended up on the tape of Brendan Westbrook. The Pine City native made no mistake for his first goal of the playoffs in his third game back in the lineup to equalize for Steinbach.
The Pistons outshot Winnipeg 14-9 in the first period, but things slowly started to get away from Steinbach in the middle period. The Blues picked up their first power play goal since Game #1, as Kelton Sutherland picked up a rebound off of Radomsky’s pad and made it 2-1 for Winnipeg at the 7:31 mark of the second.
The shots were even at twenty through two periods, but the Pistons came out flat to begin the final frame and the Blues finally got to Radomsky and the Steinbach defence in a third period.
Having not scored a third period goal since Game #1 either, Winnipeg got four in the last period. Codey Behun scored a power play goal 3:27 into the third to give Winnipeg a two goal cushion.
Then Braeden Binda and James Maxwell scored two goals 45 seconds apart to make it 5-1 Winnipeg halfway through the third. Head Coach Paul Dyck replaced Radomsky with Lenz so the Winnipeg native could get a head start on some rest ahead of the next game.
Kelton Sutherland capped off the scoring with a wrist shot that beat Lenz to the glove side to make 6-1 the final score.
INJURY UPDATE
The Pistons only dressed five defenceman for Game #4, as Doug Johnson was a late scratch before puck drop.
SPECIAL TEAMS
The Pistons went 0 for 3 on the power play, and the Blues went 2 for 3.
UP NEXT: The Pistons will look to close out the series on home ice, as they welcome Winnipeg for Game #5 at the TG Smith Centre on Saturday night. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 pm, catch all the action live on MIX 96, Steinbachonline.com, and HockeyTV.