William Desmarais was rock solid again for Selkirk with 33 saves as the host Steelers swept the weekend series over the Steinbach Pistons with a 2-1 Saturday night victory.
Jordan MacFarlane scored in the first period and Tristan Thompson scored in the second period for the Steelers, and Matt Osadick replied for the Pistons with a power play marker late in the middle frame.
Simon Harkness did not see much action through the game as the Calgary native only faced 16 shots, stopping 14 of them in the process.
MacFarlane opened the scoring by throwing a wrist shot on goal from the left point in which Harkness was partially screened, and the puck found its way past the goalie’s glove for a 1-0 lead at the 7:42 mark of the first.
Rookie Travis Hensrud was close to scoring his first MJHL goal on a rebound in front late in the first period, however he was robbed by Desmarais with a beautiful sprawling glove save to keep his team in the lead.
Thompson would score on a breakaway 2:53 into the second period to double Selkirk’s lead to 2-0. Steinbach came close once again with a couple of glorious chances later on, but Quinton Pepper was robbed once again by Desmarais and then Rylan Bettens picked up that rebound and fired the puck well wide when he was looking at a wide-open net.
Eventually the Pistons would cut the lead in half on their much maligned power play as Osadick backhanded a rebound past the Steelers netminder with 3:20 to go in period 2. Bettens and Codey Behun picked up the assists on Osadick’s 4th goal of the season.
The play in the third period was mainly in the Steelers end, but Selkirk did an excellent job of limiting rebounds in front of the net and clearing Pistons traffic for Desmarais. Osadick was dangerous once again in the third and had Steinbach’s best chances in the period to tie the game up, however Desmarais shut them both down as Selkirk was able to escape with two points and a weekend sweep.
SPECIAL TEAMS
A much different game in this one from a special teams perspective with very few penalties called compared to last night’s contest. The Pistons finally broke their PP drought by going 1 for 3 with the man advantage and killed off both man advantages they faced.
UP NEXT: The Pistons and Steelers will face each other once again next weekend in a two-game set, with the first one coming on Friday night at the TG Smith Centre for a 7:30 pm puck drop. Catch the game live on HockeyTV or on MIX 96 and Steinbachonline.com.