After a five-game home stretch that lasted eight days, the Pistons will hit the road for a pair of games tonight and tomorrow against the Dauphin Kings at Credit Union Place.
The Pistons were looking to go a perfect 5 for 5 on the homestand Wednesday night against the Neepawa Natives, but they were stymied by goalie Dawson Green for most of the night as the visiting Natives came away with a 2-1 overtime victory.
The lone bright spot for Steinbach was that Zach Purcell continue to light it up. He notched his 25th marker of the season against Neepawa, which extends three streaks for the Colorado native. Purcell has scored in five straight games, has 13 goals in his past nine games, and is currently on a nine-game point streak dating back to January 14th against Winkler.
Matt Lenz also played well on Wednesday with 23 saves but was tagged with his third extra time loss of the season. The Grapevine goaltender win percentage wasn’t affected by yesterday’s result, but he has only one regulation loss since November 21st, a span of 15 starts.
The Dauphin Kings have won three straight games, including doing the Pistons a favour by beating the Winkler Flyers 5-1 at home on Tuesday night. The Kings come into tonight’s contest in 7th place in the MJHL standings and they sit 3 points back of the 5th place Virden Oil Capitals and Waywayseecappo Wolverines.
Dauphin is led in scoring by fourth-year forward Grady Hobbs, who has 31 goals and 60 points in 49 games played. Top young forward Nakodan Greyeyes sits behind him with 56 markers, while Cole DeKoninck leads all MJHL defenceman with 51 points on the year.
The Pistons are 3-0 against the Kings in 2019-20 but Dauphin will look a bit different from the last time these two teams faced off. They added goalie Levi Mitchell and defenceman Colby Jaquet from the Selkirk Steelers at the trade deadline, picked up forward Kaden Bryant who has been producing at a point per game pace for Dauphin. And lastly the team added forward Bryson Cecconi, who has spent time this year with the Humboldt Broncos and the Portage Terriers.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Pistons PP 19.7% (7th), PK 77.6% (7th)
Kings PP 21.2% (5th), PK 77.5% (8th)
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Pistons: Codey Behun
Behun has been productive against the Kings this season as the Winnipeg native has scored in all three games while also netting a shootout winner back on November 1st. The 19-year-old has cooled off a bit with just 3 goals in his last 13 games, but started to turn it around with markers in both games against OCN while coming close against Swan Valley and Neepawa. Behun is due to get back on track against a team he’s been successful against.
Kings: Kaden Bryant
Bryant joined Dauphin just after the trade deadline and has added more offensive firepower to a solid forward group. He was the second leading scorer in the Manitoba U-18 AAA Hockey League last season with the Winnipeg Wild with 89 points in 45 games. He’ll be a force to be reckoned for years to come and someone the Pistons will need to watch out for tonight.