Dawson Green definitely didn’t play like a goalie with a 3-12 record as he made 44 saves on the night, and Jaeger Lapointe scored the overtime winner in a 2-1 Neepawa Natives victory over the Steinbach Pistons Wednesday night.
The Pistons were looking to cap off their homestand with their fifth straight win, but will only pick up a single point from the game and wrap up with 9 of a possible 10 points. Matt Lenz stopped 23 of 25 shots in the loss for Steinbach.
Steinbach struggled to generate many quality chances in the first period despite outshooting Neepawa 14-6 in the second period. The Pistons would take the lead two minutes into the second off of a Natives turnover in their defensive zone. The red-hot Zach Purcell broke up a pass on the left wing and beat Green glove side with his quick wrister to give the home side a 1-0 lead on his 25th of the season.
The Natives have been a thorn in the Pistons’ side the last two seasons and once again hung around with some solid defensive play in the middle frame. Neepawa would get the equalizer on a wrist shot from the slot by Braden Gillies with 5:34 left.
The third period saw the Pistons once again double up Neepawa on the shot counter (15 to 7), and this time there were some quality looks with the best coming off the stick of Max Neill. His first shot hit the crossbar and then his subsequent chance hit Green and hit the top of the goal and over.
Steinbach would put themselves behind the eight-ball late in the game, taking a penalty with 1:59 to go in the third period and one in overtime. Steinbach would kill both of those off, however the goal was a result of the power play. Lapointe would bury the rebound past Lenz off of a Noah Goertzen point shot, giving the Natives a big win over the Pistons.
SPECIAL TEAMS
The Pistons went 0 for 2 on the power play while the Natives would go 0 for 3 with the man advantage.
UP NEXT: Steinbach hits the road this weekend with a couple of games on Friday and Saturday night against the Dauphin Kings. You can catch both of those games on HockeyTV or on the radio at MIX 96.7 FM.