Article Courtesy of TheCarillon.com – Picture Courtesy of Adeline Loewen Photography
The Steinbach Pistons, now a perfect 11-0 to start the season, will lose a game sooner or later, but Friday night in Steinbach at the T.G. Smith Centre against the Dauphin King was not the night, but barely.
Steinbach beat the Kings 3-2 in overtime in a thriller in front of more than a thousand fans, the largest crowd of the season as Mackenzie Graham scored the winner just 18 seconds into the overtime period, sending this rink into a frenzy.
The fact it was the Dauphin Kings, who came into the game with a bad 2-9 record, was the team that came the closest to knocking off the Pistons, was, to say the least, somewhat unexpected. But it is what the Pistons can expect from all comers from here on in as whoever plays the Pistons wants to be the team to knock them off.
Dauphin took a 2-1 lead with seven minutes left in the third on a goal by Kyle Olseksiuk. But Olelsiuk also proved to the goat of the game for the Kings as he took a minor penalty with two minutes remaining, his fourth minor of the game and the Pistons pounced on the opportunity as Darby Gula scored the tieing goal with 1:32 remaining. Gula also assisted on Graham’s OT winner.
The Kings came to play in this game taking the lead on the powerplay midway through the first and were a handful for the Pistons all game. Declan Graham (brother to Mackenzie) tied it for the Pistons, also on the powerplay with three minutes remaining in the third.
Mackenzie Graham, with a goal and two assists, had quite a night as he also drew assists on both regulation time goals, as did William Koop.
Roman Bengert got the win in net for the Pistons as the home team outshot the Kings 31-19.
These same two teams will go at it again tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the T.G. Smith Centre.