Despite appearing in his first game in over a month, goaltender Jayme Janzen was stellar as he kept the Natives off the board for 56:15 and finished the night with 33 saves, while it was newcomer Nat Howard's first goal as a member of the Orange and Black late in regulation that lifted the Flyers to a 3-2 victory.
While there were plenty of shots and a handful of scoring chances for each team, the opening period was a goaltender's duel between Janzen and Neepawa netminder Kent Henry, a trend that continued for most of the final 40 minutes as well.
However, as Janzen's shutout bid carried over to the third period, the Orange and Black finally solved Henry at the 13:42 mark of the middle frame.
Shortly after killing off their fourth penalty of the evening, the Flyers went on the attack and were rewarded for their efforts. Jordan Peters started the play by chasing down his own dump in behind the Natives' goal, where he was joined by Ian Campbell and Stefan Schneider. Schneider eventually came away with the puck and beat Henry with a wrap around for his 30th goal of the season.
Then just past the midway point of the second, while on the power-play, defenseman Alex North snuck in from the blueline to take a cross ice pass from Tyler Bram and he snapped it past Henry on the shortside to make it 2-0 Flyers.
At that point the Flyers appeared to be well in control of the contest, but with North in the box the Matthew Bailey spoiled Janzen's shutout bid at 16:15.
He then followed that up by collecting his second of the game just 1:19 later and just like that it was a tie game.
That would last just 56 seconds though as the Flyers swarmed around the Natives goal looking to regain their lead and after Schneider and David Kurbatsky were turned aside by Henry, the puck came to Howard and he put it home for the game winner.
After picking up 13 of a possible 14 points in the last seven games, the Flyers will now enjoy a much deserved break before returning to the ice to take on the visiting Swan Valley Stampeders on Sunday, January 20th at 3:00.
Game Stats
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