The Winkler Flyers stretched their winning streak to five games on Friday night with a convincing 5-1 win over the Kings in Dauphin. The Flyers received goals from five different skaters and newcomer Britt League stopped 30 of the 31 shots he faced to help Winkler beat the Kings in their first meeting of the season.

With nearly a week off since their last game against the Winnipeg Blues on Sunday night, the Winkler Flyers made the trip to Credit Union Place in Dauphin, a rink that had been very kind to the Flyers during the past few years. In their previous 12 games in Dauphin, the Flyers had just one regulation loss to go along with 10 wins.

The first few minutes of the game were spent in the Winkler end and goaltender Britt League, who was making his Flyers’ debut, kept the game scoreless while the team in front of him started to push back. For the third straight game the Flyers scored first as Griffin Leonard potted a rebound from a Noah Goertzen point shot at the tail end of a power-play and Winkler led 1-0 nearly seven minutes into the game.

The Flyers doubled their lead with another power-play early in the second as Eric Fawkes tucked in a wrap around goal for his second of the season. Colton Friesen drew the assist. Just over a minute later, rookie forward Kyle Lang tipped in a point shot from Raihan Kheraj and the Flyers’ lead had grown to 3-0. Jayden McCarthy also assisted on Lang’s second of the season. Outshooting the Kings 28-22, the Flyers took their three goal lead into the third.

Just before the nine minute mark of the third, Kheraj fed the puck down the left wing to Josh Kagan and he sent a wrist shot to the back of the net to push Winkler in front by four goals. It was Kagan’s second straight game with a goal. The Kings would get to League before the midway point of the period when Bryon Fobair cut Winkler’s lead to 4-1.

However, the Flyers power-play would strike again before the end as Eric Fawkes and Drake Burgin picked up the assists on Colton Friesen’s shot from the right slot to restore the Flyers’ four goal advantage.

Britt League was very solid in his first start in a Flyers’ uniform as he turned aside 31 of the 32 shots he faced. Winkler outshot Dauphin 46-32 overall. Winkler went 3-for-7 on the power-play and 2-for-2 on the penalty-kill.

Winkler (8-5-1) will continue their weekend road trip Saturday night in Waywayseecappo (8-6-1) in search of their sixth straight win. Puck drop at the Waywayseecappo Arena is 7pm with Matt Friesen’s pregame show getting underway on Country 88 and online at www.pembinavalleyonline.com at 6:55pm. You can also watch the game live with a subscription to www.hockeytv.com

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