Content Provided By: Steinbach Online
Christian Green stopped all 22 shots he faced while recording his 3rd shutout of the year as the Steinbach Pistons pushed their winning streak to 9, defeating the Waywayseecappo Wolverines 5-0 on Saturday night.
Right out of the gate, the Pistons controlled the puck, the tempo and a lot of the territory as they piled up the shots, forcing the Wolverines goalie to make several stellar saves just to keep it 0-0.
Brayden Berg opened the scoring as the 19-year-old notched his 8th of the year, putting Steinbach ahead 1-0. Berg finished off a nice pass from Brody Green, who got the puck behind the net thanks to the hard work of Jackson Kostiuk. Both players picked up assists on the goal.
The lead would grow less than two minutes later when Ryan McDonald won a foot race, picked up a loose puck in the offensive zone and whipped a perfect shot top shelf for his 5th of the year. Gavin Holod picked up the lone assist as the rookie was a key part in generating that goal. He battled the puck free and then went toe-to-toe in a hard forechecking role, eventually forcing the puck deep and that led to McDonald scoring to make it 2-0.
Christian Green wasn’t overly tested in the first but had to stay dialed in as he faced long stretches of inactivity. He managed to stop all 5 shots he faced in the opening period.
In the second, the 20-year-old goalie was tested earlier as the Wolverines came out a different team to start the period. They were on their toes, hungry, looking to get back into the game but time and time again, Christian Green came up with saves and the Pistons played tight defense, frustrating the visitors and kept their 2-0 lead into the back half of the period.
Steinbach’s power play would extend the lead late in the second as a after a scramble around the goalie, Sam Noad found a loose puck and stuffed home his 5th of the year with Jamie Fuchs and Reece Gault getting the assists.
For Noad, his incredible stretch of play continues. The 19-year-old has scored a goal in three straight games and on top of that, has a point streak of 8 games where he’s tallied a total of 13 points.
Just over a minute later, Brett Kaiser sniped his 7th of the year to make it a 4-0 lead with the assists going to Connor Paronuzzi and Mathis Laplante.
Shots after 40 were 36-12 Steinbach and the score was 4-0.
In the third, the Pistons got more great goaltending and Kostiuk put any doubt about the outcome away as he sent a laser to the back of the net off a nice feed from Gault, making it 5-0.
For Kostiuk, it was his 7th of the year and third straight game with a goal. Gault’s 13 assists on the year is second most for MJHL rookies.
After stopping all 22 shots, Christian Green is now tied for the league lead in wins with 13 (he does have the best overall record and best winning percentage), he’s tops in goals against average and save percentage and also tied for the league lead in shutouts with 3.
Special teams were solid again as the Pistons power play was 1/4 while the penalty kill was a perfect 6/6.
Steinbach will take their 9 game winning streak to Winnipeg on Tuesday to take on the Blues.