24 hours after Game One, the Steinbach Pistons and Virden Oil Capitals went back at it again tonight at Southeast Event Centre in Game Two of the Turnbull Cup Playoffs semifinals. Steinbach looked to even the series at 1-1.
Steinbach mustered together a better first period than last night, but still suffered essentially the same fate as they still gave up three goals to give Virden a 3-0 lead, just not in as quick a span as yesterday.
Liam Goertzen went to the net on the power play where he put home some loose change when Carson Wright’s chance bounced out to him and he beat Chris Quizi for his second of the playoffs, making it 1-0 Virden at 5:25.
Dysen Drake doubled his team’s lead at 10:15, his sixth, followed by an unfortunate bounce for Steinbach at 17:22 when Marshall Light threw the puck towards the net and it hit Rory Gilmour and trickled past Quizi for his fifth to open up, once again, a 3-0 Virden lead in the opening frame.
Steinbach gave itself something to pat itself on the back with in the final minute of the frame when Zhenya Miles got the Pistons on the scoresheet to cut the deficit to two goals. Miles’ third came at 19:03 when he tapped in a pass from Jackson Kostiuk at the top of the crease past Braxton Burdeny.
Virden quickly restored its three-goal lead at 2:39 of the second but Liam Doyle quickly got Steinbach back within two at 4:57, firing a point shot past Burdeny for his sixth.
The Pistons ran into some penalty trouble in the middle frame, taking five different minor penalties from different players, which led to the Oil Capitals cashing in on the power play for the second time of the contest. Bryce Bryant beat a diving Quizi with 40 seconds left in the period to make it 5-2, his sixth to give Virden a 5-2 lead heading into the final 20 minutes.
Steinbach found itself down just a pair once again at 7:30 when Luke Bogart, who was having himself a solid game, jammed in his first past Burdeny on the man advantage to give his squad a glimmer of hope, making it a 5-3 game.
“I thought Bogey (Bogart) was one of the bright spots tonight for sure. He’s been kinda that unsung guy throughout the year but when he gets an opportunity on the power play he scores a goal for us,” said Pistons head coach Paul Dyck to Dave Anthony following Game Two. “(He’s) not the biggest guy but has a high compete level, cares about winning, so yeah, really impressed with his night.”
Though any hope didn’t last much longer as Virden would go on to score another trio of goals.
Tyson Ulmer beat Quizi for his first at 11:04 to make it 6-3, then Bryant scored two more at 15:37 and 17:22 to complete his hat trick by opening the floodgates.
Connor Paronuzzi got one back for Steinbach in the final minute to make it an 8-4 final score for Virden, taking a 2-0 series lead back home for two straight. Quizi made 27 stops.
“This team’s very capable of winning a hockey game and we don’t have to win the series on Tuesday. We’re just looking to win one game, and we’ve done that a couple of times against Virden this year,” Dyck said.
Steinbach now travels to Virden for Games Three and Four at Tundra Oil & Gas Place. Game Three is set for Tuesday, April 7 at 7:30 p.m. CT and Game Four on Wednesday, April 8 at 7:30 as well.
Article Written by Evan Waldner – Picture courtesy of Ice Wave Media
