Content Provided By: Steinbach Online
With the game seemingly in control, the Steinbach Pistons let up and allowed the Winnipeg Freeze to make a game of it late, but it was too big of a hole to dig out of as the Pistons came away with a 7-4 win on Wednesday afternoon.
The game had a very different feel to it with it being a 12:30 pm puck drop and the stands filled with students from the La Broquerie schools close to the rink.
Winnipeg came out strong and controlled the early part of the game. Slowly but surely, the Pistons started to tilt the ice and managed to get on the board first.
With a power play coming to an end, Shane Burns wired a point shot through traffic, finding the back of the net for his 3rd of the year, putting Steinbach up 1-0. Connor Paronuzzi started off his incredible day with the first assist and Mathis Laplante collected the secondary helper. The power play was over seconds before Burns scored.
For Burns, it was his first goal since October 4th, which is a bit dramatic since he missed several weeks with an upper body injury.
The 19-year-old didn’t want to wait months, weeks, days or even hours before he’d score again. He waited a for a few minutes later for another power play and he leaned into a wrister that boomed past the Freeze netminder and in for his second in a row, 4th of the year and gave Steinbach a 2-0 lead.
Like on his first, Paronuzzi had the primary assist but time it was Grady Hoffman who picked up the second assist.
It didn’t take long for the lead to increase in the second as a point shot from Zhenya Miles hit off Ty Paisley, who had fought his way to the front of the net, and ramped up and over the goalie for Paisley’s 4th of the season. Cole Cairns notched an assist as well.
Just over a minute later and yet again on a power play, Paronuzzi, Luc DeGagne and Brayden Barnett stacked the Freeze blueline, making it impossible for the Freeze to clear the zone. Barnett picked up the puck, walked in and wired home his 3rd of the season to put the Pistons up 4-0. DeGagne and Paronuzzi were given the assists.
Winnipeg would answer back quickly, cutting the lead to 4-1.
In the third, things went from hockey game to a circus as both teams went on a scoring tear.
Steinbach got it started less than 30 seconds into the third.
DeGagne cashed in for his 2nd of the year from Paronuzzi and Hoffman, 5-1 Steinbach.
Just over four minutes later, Jamie Fuchs knocked home a power play marker for his 13th of the year from Brody Green and Luke Bogart, 6-1 Steinbach.
Paronuzzi would finally find the back of the net to make it 7-1 Pistons with Bogart and DeGagne getting the assists.
For the 19-year-old sniper, it was his first goal since November 1st. Never one to hang his head, Paronuzzi continued to be an excellent teammate despite the scoring struggles. He picked up a very impressive 15 assists in 13 games between goals.
Winnipeg would take over from there.
The Freeze managed to score 3 times in the span of 3 minutes to bring the game to 7-4.
If not for a sensational pad save by Christian Green, the Freeze would have made it even closer but the 20-year-old bailed out his team and kept the three goal lead.
Time would tick away and Steinbach would come out with a wild 7-4 victory to improve their regular season record to 21-5-1.
Christian Green finished with 19 saves for his 16th win of the year.
Steinbach finished a very impressive 3-6 on the power play and a strong 5-5 on the penalty kill.
For the first time in months, the Pistons will have back-to-back home games. They’ll welcome in the Winnipeg Blues on Friday before heading back out on the road for a matchup against the Waywayseecappo Wolverines on Saturday.