Coming off Friday night’s defeat to the OCN Blizzard, the Pistons earned a hard fought victory over the Winnipeg Blues 3-2. Declan Graham was crucial to the Pistons success with his equalizing goal in the first period and an assist on Landon Plett’s insurance marker deep into the 2nd.
Graham’s goal was set up beautifully by Vaughn Dupre’s pass, and was key in jump starting his team. Declan has been improving game in and game out and after the game he had this to say. “That’s the mindset you gotta have, every shift you just want to get a little better than the last. That how I go about my games.”
Declan’s two points and staunch defensive play caused him to be named the game’s first star.
With the Blues in town, Roman Bengert was recalled in net. He performed fantastically saving 35 of the 37 shots he faced, and came up big in the closing minutes.
Inside the last minute of the game Winnipeg pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. With the man advantage the Blues spent most of the time in the Steinbach zone. Bengert answered the call on several occasions saving a shot that was inches away from the goal line and closing the door on two breakaways by the Blues.
One of Steinbach’s most notable improvements in this game was their commitment to physical play. Carter Chorney and Declan Graham both had some seismic collisions on Blues players.
The team played with a higher intensity level, and with more confidence than in the last several games. This was hopefully the first step to getting the Pistons back on track.
The Pistons have three games next week. They travel to Neepawa to face the Natives on Wednesday, and return home for a clash with the Waywayseecappo Wolverines at the T. G. Smith Centre on Friday night. They close the weekend facing these same Winnipeg Blues at the MTS Iceplex on Saturday night.
Three Stars of the Game
1st Star: Declan Graham (Steinbach) 1G 1A
2nd Star: Carter Chorney (Steinbach) Crushing Hits, Great effort both ways.
3rd Star: Roman Bengert 35 SV 37 SA ,14th Win of the Season