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It was a battle between two heavy weights in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League and with all the hype and build up, it certainly didn’t disappoint as the Steinbach Pistons edged the Winkler Flyers 4-3 in a shootout.
With a buzz in the HyLife Centre before the puck was even dropped, the game got off to a contentious start with both teams locking horns right from the opening face off, both trying to set a physical tone early.
Steinbach would draw first blood as the Pistons worked in the offensive zone, Matt Munro started the play by driving into the zone. The puck worked its way from behind the net to the blueline where Sam Zagari hit Connor Paronuzzi with a cross seam pass and with all the Flyers watching Paronuzzi, he whipped a pass through the blue paint where Munro was able jam home his first as a member of the Pistons, putting the home side up 1-0.
Winkler responded just a few minutes later while on the power play as the number one ranked unit wasted little tie scoring to tie the game 1-1.
That score would hold for the rest of the first period with the shots also being tied 9-9.
In the second, the Pistons started to take over the game for longer stretches. They piled up shots but the score remained 1-1 despite both teams having a couple of opportunities on the power play.
Late in the second, the Flyers were called for too many men on the ice and while arguing that call, were assessed an un-sportsman like conduct penalty giving the Pistons a two man advantage for full two minutes.
It was an opportunity they would not let pass by.
With the extra room in the offensive zone, the Pistons worked the puck around, waiting for an opening. Ty Paisley took the puck from the half wall and worked his way up to the point where he fed a pass to Noah Szabo. Szabo wasted no time firing a pass across the zone on the stick of Paronuzzi who wired home his 20th of the season, putting Steinbach up 2-1 with under a minute to go in the second.
Steinbach outshot Winkler 18-7 in the middle frame.
Early in the third, the Flyers used another power play to even the game again, 2-2.
Brayden Barnett would restore the Pistons lead as the 20-year-old drove to the net and finished off a pretty pass from Paisley, celebrating his 8th of the season and extending his point streak to 5 games. Brett Kaiser also collected an assist on the 3-2 marker.
Refusing to quit, the Flyers knotted the game again less than two minutes later, scoring off a broken play in front of the Pistons goal to tie the game 3-3.
Both goalies were challenged in the period but both held the fort and the time melted away with neither side grabbing another goal, meaning overtime would be needed.
In the extra frame, both teams took a cautious approach to their business while finding ways to generate a little opportunity.
The best chance came late in the overtime when Paronuzzi was sent in all alone on a breakaway but he was stopped cold, keeping the game tied through overtime.
In the shootout, the first Flyers shooter scored, putting pressure on Steinbach.
The first Pistons shooter was stopped, keeping the Flyers up 1-0 in the shootout.
After the Winkler player fanned on his attempt, Grady Hoffman stepped up to even things at 1-1.
Winkler missed on their third attempt setting up Jamie Fuchs, the shootout hero from the night before to do it again, scoring to put the Pistons in the win column 4-3.
Christian Green was solid in net making 25 saves for the victory.
Steinbach’s power play was 1-4 while the penalty kill was 4-6.
The Pistons will have a couple of days between games as they don’t play again until Tuesday when they travel to Selkirk to battle the Steelers.