The Steinbach Pistons beat the Winkler Flyers in Game 7 of round 1 by a score of 4-2 Tuesday evening at the TG Smith Centre.
Steinbach opened the scoring a minute and a half into the opening frame. Langley Kruggel kept a loose puck in at the point and put a seeing eye shot on net, past Malachi Klassen to make the game 1-0.
Steinbach would go to the penalty kill twice in the second half of the first period, the second penalty at first looking like a tripping penalty on Winkler but then the refs changed it surprisingly to a slashing penalty on Travis Hensrud. Steinbach was successful on both kills, taking the 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
Winkler would get on the board midway through the second period to tie the game up 1-1. Zachary Brault got the puck out front to Mike Svenson who fanned on the shot, but the puck slowly slid through an overextended Wasik who was reacting to what he thought would be a hard shot.
Steinbach would restore the one goal lead with a minute and a half remaining in the second period. Kirk Mullen cleanly won the draw back to Ty Paisley who immediately wired it top corner and past Klassen to make it 2-1.
Just under 5-minutes into the third period Winkler would once again tie the game up, making it 2-2. Wasik made some big saves with a fleury of bodies in front of him, but Kyle Crewe found the loose puck and put it past Wasik.
The Pistons would go to the powerplay at the 8:31 mark of the final frame. Ty Paisley got the puck to Warren Clark at the point who then found a lane and whipped the puck post and in to give the Pistons a 3-2 lead with just over half a period remaining.
The Pistons would bear down, giving the Flyers nothing to work with and completely shutting down their zone entries. Steinbach got a few good chances, but Klassen would stand tall and keep the game a one score game.
With 1:20 remaining in the game, the Pistons would take a tripping penalty while the Flyers had an extra attacker. Steinbach would now be tasked with killing off a 6 on 4 powerplay for the remainder of the game.
With 27 seconds remaining in the game, Travis Hensrud would clear the puck out of the Pistons zone and beat the Flyers player to the puck, potting the shorthanded empty netter and securing the Pistons game 7 win over the Winkler Flyers.