The Winkler Flyers won their fourth game in a row on Sunday night, getting past the Winnipeg Blues 3-2 in a shoot-out. Rookie forwards Josh Kagan and Eric Fawkes both scored shoot-out goals to help the Flyers continue their climb up the Manitoba Junior Hockey League Standings.
After beating the visiting OCN Blizzard in overtime in their last game on Friday, the Winkler Flyers returned to home ice on Sunday night in front of family and friends as the club paid tribute to their families and billet families during a pregame ceremony.
It was another good start for the Flyers who opened the scoring late in the first period on the power-play. After taking the pass from defense partner Collin Caulfield, Raihan Kheraj sent the puck to the left slot where Brody Moffat scored his team leading sixth of the season to give Winkler a 1-0 lead.
Winkler doubled their lead to 2-0 when Josh Kagan carried the puck into the Winnipeg zone and snapped home his first Manitoba Junior Hockey League goal from the top of the circle. Colton Harder drew the lone assist. The Flyers seemed to be in full control of the game as they took their two goal lead into the third period while outshooting the Blues 29-12 through 40 minutes of play.
However, just like their first meeting of the season, where the Flyers let a late two goal lead slip away before eventually losing the game in overtime, the Blues came back to tie the game in the third. First it was Braeden Binda who cut Winkler’s lead to 2-1 just over six minutes into the third.
Then after Winnipeg was awarded a five minutes power-play with just over five minutes left in regulation, the Blues tied the game on the man-advantage with 3:48 left on the clock.
Winkler managed to kill off the rest of the period and took the game to overtime for the second straight game and sixth time already through 13 games this year. After killing off yet another penalty in overtime, the game was headed to a shootout.
Forward Josh Kagan, who had two previous shoot-out goals already this season went first and scored for the Flyers. After Winkler netminder Aaron Brunn stopped the first Winnipeg attempt, Colton Friesen missed his chance for the Flyers in round two. Blues forward Brayden Foreman scored in round two to tie up the competition at a goal each after two rounds.
Eric Fawkes started the third round for Winkler and raced into the zone and scored to give Brunn a chance to win the game with a save. And the Morden native did just that as he stopped the third Winnipeg shooter to secure the 3-2 victory for the Flyers.
Brunn made 32 saves in the win as the Flyers outshot the Blues 36-34 through 65 minutes of play. Both teams were 1-for-5 on the power-play. The Flyers improved their record in one goal games to 6-1-1.
The Flyers (7-5-1), who have now won four games in a row and five of their last seven, will return to the ice this coming weekend when they hit the road for games in Dauphin and Waywayseecappo on Friday and Saturday. You can catch both games live with Matt Friesen on Country 88.9FM and online at www.pembinavalleyonline.com. You can also watch online with a subscription to www.hockeytv.com.
Thu, Apr 18, 7:00 PM
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