The exhibition season wrapped up Friday evening with the Steinbach Pistons downing the Selkirk Steelers 7-4 for the third time this pre-season at the Sun Gro Centre in Beausejour.
The Pistons started close to what will be their starting lineup on Friday when they host the Winkler Flyers for the season opener at the T.G. Smith Centre.
Friday’s game was the first time Daniel Taillefer, Cole Smith and Tyler Penner were put together, which will be the Pistons top line this season. And it showed why, they contributed 4 goals and 5 assists in the win, with Taillefer getting the elusive hat-trick.
It took the Pistons a couple of shifts to get their legs going and the Steelers took advantage scoring the first goal of the game :42 seconds off the stick of Brady Castellano helped by Adam Wowryk.
However, the Pistons quickly thereafter showed their offensive prowess, netting four unanswered goals. Schoonbaert, Petkau and Taillefer’s two goals gave the Pistons a 4-1 lead. Selkirk minimized their deficit with a goal in the dying seconds of the period from veteran Riley Derlago to make it 4-2.
Both teams exchanged markers in the 2nd period Taillefer for the Pistons and Tyler Meixner for the Steelers.
And then in the third the Steelers pulled within a goal of the Pistons when Ty Kraus made it 5-4 at 12:52. That only lasted :25 seconds as Penner regained the Pistons two-goal lead shortly thereafter.
James Shearer’s blast from the point in the final minutes of play ended the scoring.
Penner added 3 assists, Smith and Joe Carney had 2, while Ryan Carlson, Tyler Anderson and Scott Pektau picked up a helper as well.
Jeremy Wik received the start stopping 7-of-9 and Roman Bengert played the second half steering away 5-of-7. The Pistons outshot the Steelers 33-16.
The Pistons wrap up the pre-season with a 7-0 record and will try and transfer that success to the regular season when they host the Winkler Flyers on Friday, September 25th at the T.G. Smith Centre.