The Winkler Flyers capped off a perfect weekend road trip with a 4-3 victory in Virden on Sunday night. Trent Sambrook, Bryce Krauter, Mateo Albinati and Jaden Townsend all scored for the Flyers who managed to pick up the victory in all three of their away games on the weekend.

Coming off back to back wins in Swan River on Friday and Saturday, the Orange and Black made the trip south to play an Oil Capitals squad that were just two points ahead of them in the standings and had lost five of their last six games coming in.

The Flyers could not have asked for a better start as they opened the scoring just over three minutes into the game. Catching the Virden defense on a line change, Bryce Krauter carried the puck down the left wing side and slid a pass over to rookie defenseman Trent Sambrook in the middle. The 17 year old rookie snapped his shot through the legs of Virden starter Riley Wallace to give the visitors a 1-0 lead with his first goal in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.

Winkler would double their lead later in the period when Grady Lane and Griffin Leonard assisted on Jaden Townsend’s second of the season, making the score 2-0 Winkler with 3:17 left before intermission. Not long after, Virden scored on a nice tip in front to cut Winkler’s lead to 2-1.

Just like they did in the first period, the Flyers came out of the gate strong to start the second. Before the period was two minutes old, the Flyers went on the power-play with a chance to regain their two goal advantage. Holding the puck on the left wing wall, leading scorer Justin Svenson spotted Bryce Krauter in the high slot and the first year Flyer made no mistake in ripping his shot into the top half of the net for his second of the season. Drake Burgin, who leads all Winkler blueliners in points also added an assist.

Later in the period, the Oil Capitals scored a power-play goal of their own and the Flyers lead was cut to 3-2.

Still leading by a goal in the third, the Flyers added an insurance marker with another goal early in the period. Just before the three minute mark of the third, Mateo Albinati scored just moments after Krauter had been stopped on a breakaway and the Flyers lead had grown to 4-2. Alex Cattani picked up the second assist on Albinati’s third of the season.

That goal would prove to be a big one as the Oil Caps scored their third goal of the night with an extra attacker on the ice and 17 seconds left on the clock to get back to within one. However, time would run out of the Oil Capitals at the end and the Flyers would hang on for the 4-3 win, improving their road record to 6-1-0.

Dorrin Luding was back between the pipes for the Flyers and made 31 saves in the win. The Flyers outshot the Oil Capitals 40-34 overall. Both teams were 1-for-2 on the power-play.

The Flyers (7-5-0) will return home for their next three games with the first one taking place Tuesday night against former Flyer Brody Moffatt and the Waywayseecappo Wolverines. Puck drop at the Winkler Recreation Complex is 7:30pm. You can video stream the game live with a subscription to www.hockeytv.com

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