The Pistons got off to a winning start on their first road trip of the season, as Troy Beauchemin, Tristan Culleton, Brendan Martin, and Brady Tatro had the markers in a 4-1 win over the OCN Blizzard Friday.
Matt Radomsky’s shutout bid ended late in the third, but he had another solid performance in goal making 20 saves in the Pistons goal. Blizzard goaltender Noah Giesbrecht was good in the OCN net with 38 saves, but took the loss.
A trio of rookies combined on the Pistons first goal, as Burke Heide’s point shot got through on Giesbrecht and Beauchemin knocked the rebound in to give him his 1st MJHL goal and a 1-0 lead. Heide picked up his first MJHL point on the assist, and Max Neill had the secondary helper.
The next goal was just over two minutes to go in the second period, as Boedey Vaeth forced a turnover behind the OCN goal and fed a hard-cutting Culleton in the slot. Culleton lasered a picture-perfect shot top corner to give the Pistons a two goal lead.
Brendan Martin gave Steinbach a three goal lead, as he took a pass from Carter Loney and beat Giesbrecht short-side down the left wing to give the Pistons a 3-0 lead 56 seconds into the final frame. Loney, the Pistons AP on the trip, picked up his first MJHL point in his first MJHL game, and Brady Tatro grabbed the second assist on Martin’s 6th of the year.
The Pistons got sloppy in the latter stages of the third period, and it finally caught up to them as Dustin Mozdzen banged home a loose puck past Radomsky on the power play with 1:47 left in the third period to get OCN within two. The refs initially waved the goal off, but after a brief conference they changed the call to a good goal.
But Brady Tatro willed a puck out of his own zone with the OCN net empty, and pushed the puck into the empty net for his 6th goal of the season.
COACH’S COMMENTS:
“A win is a win, that was the slogan we used after the game,” Head Coach Paul Dyck said after the game in an interview with MIX 96’s Dave Anthony. “We can attribute the bus legs, that’s the easy cop-out when you come up north. I thought after the first period we had a bit more jump, and I thought the last few minutes of the second Cully’s (Tristan Culleton) goal gave us a spark. We were better in the third for the most part, but we did just enough to win today.”
TATRO’S STREAK
Brady Tatro has scored in five straight games for the Pistons. The Pistons record for most consecutive games scoring a goal is seven, set by Landon Plett in the 2016-17 season.
SPECIAL TEAMS
The Pistons went 0 for 6 on the PP, while the Blizzard went 1 for 4 on their man advantages.
UP NEXT: These same two teams will go at it tomorrow night with a 7:00 pm puck drop. Catch the game live on HockeyTV, or listen on your radios to MIX 96 and Steinbachonline.com with Dave Anthony beginning at 6:45 pm.