The Steinbach Pistons are facing the Winkler Flyers in round one of the MJHL playoffs with game one set for Friday, March 24th at the TG Smith Centre.
Season Series:
November 2 – 4-1 Pistons win
December 31 – 4-2 Pistons win
January 3 – 4-2 Pistons win
February 8 – 3-2 Pistons win
March 15 – 2-1 Pistons win
SPECIAL TEAMS (versus each other):
PISTONS: PP 4/17 – 23.5% PK 19/23 – 82.6%
FLYERS: PP 4/23 – 17.3% PK 13/17 – 76.5%
The Steinbach Pistons faced off against the Winkler Flyers five times this season winning all the games and outscoring them 17-8 over that span. Both teams finished in the top half of the standings with Steinbach finishing in second with 85 points and a 42-15-0-1 record and Winkler finishing in fourth with 77 points and a 35-16-6-1 record.
Looking back on the season Head Coach & GM Paul Dyck commented, “we came into this season with high expectations, we felt we had a group here that could put ourselves in contention and get a good seed which we did.” Elaborating further on that Dyck stated, “we had some adversity along the way which we always feel is a positive thing as you head into the playoffs. One of the things from a coaching staff perspective is it’s a group we’ve really enjoyed working with and you know they’ve worked hard to prepare for a playoff push and that’s all we can really ask for.”
Talking on some highlights of the season and some attributes of this year’s team Dyck stated, “initially we were a team that scored a lot of goals early in the season and then we realized after things tightened up that there were going to have to be different ways on how we win hockey games and after some challenging times we really embraced that, you know starting to win the tough games, the tight games, the low scoring games so just adding different tools to the tool box as the season went on.”
“Their competitiveness is something, the guys want to be successful and with that we’re consistently going to see a good effort from this group.” Dyck stated on what the fans can expect come playoffs. “If we play fast, that is one of the strengths of this group, but I think we’ve also added a little bit of bite to our game as the season has gone on so if we can combine the two we should be able to provide some exciting games.”
Commenting on how the Pistons match up against the Flyers Dyck commented, “yeah, we’ve had some success against them, the games have all been close, we’ve found different ways to win them. We know it’s going to be a very tough series there’s no question about it, they’re big and physical they make you earn ice they’re just a difficult team to play against. For us we’re going to have to play our game, there’s no question we are going to have to be able to grind some games out and embrace that style of play.” When asked who can be expected the start in net for the Pistons Dyck said, “we have confidence in both goaltenders. In the past we have used both and we are thankful that we are in that situation again, we believe we can win with both, but Dominik Wasik will start the series for us.”