Rookie defenseman Kyle Lamoureux scored the game winning goal in the eighth round of the shoot-out to give the Winkler Flyers a 6-5 victory in Neepawa on Sunday night, helping the club win their seventh straight game away from home. Dorrin Luding also saved his best effort for the end, as he stopped all eight Neepawa shooters and made a highlight reel save in the final moments of overtime to allow the Orange and Black a chance to earn their 10th win of the season.
With a much needed six day break after a run of six games in 10 ten days, the Winkler Flyers started a stretch of six straight games on the road on Sunday night. Despite their busy end to October, the Flyers entered play against Neepawa with a 5-0-1 record in their last six outings.
Winkler drew first blood against the Natives when defenseman Nathan Poolman rushed the puck from coast to coast and wired his second of the season into the far side of the net to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead, 6:56 into the game. Before the midway point of the first, the Flyers scored again to double their lead to 2-0. It was Mateo Albinati who managed to sneak in his 4th of the season under the pad of Neepawa starter Dawson Green to increase his point streak to eight games. Garrett Szeremley and Everett Bestland added the assists. That was the end of the night for Green, who was replaced by Ethan Peterson after allowing two goals on the first four shots he faced.
Later in the period, the Natives cut Winkler’s lead to 2-1 on the power-play. The Flyers’ penalty-kill, which has struggled so far this season would turn out to be one of the main storylines of the game.
Past the halfway point of the second, Sulvin Shortreed took a nice pass out of the corner and snapped in his team leading 11th of the campaign to restore Winkler’s two goal lead. However, near the end of the middle frame, the Natives would go on an extended power-play and made the Flyers pay once again. Neepawa finished the second with two more power-play goals in the final minute and a half of the period and the game went tied 3-3 into the second intermission.
The third period was wildly entertaining as the Natives moved in front for the first time in the game with yet another power-play goal with 6:37 left in regulation. Now trailing 4-3, the Flyers went back to work looking for the equalizer and just 34 seconds after the Neepawa goal, 16 year old forward Grady Lane jammed the puck between the post and the pad of Peterson to pull Winkler even 4-4. Drake Burgin and Ian Tookenay assisted on Lane’s first Manitoba Junior Hockey League goal.
Then a minute later, Everett Bestland out-skated a pair of Neepawa defenders to a loose puck in the offensive zone and hammered home his first of the season to give Winkler a 5-4 lead. Unfortunately, the Flyers’ special teams would bite them again before the end as Neepawa forward Will Highet scored his fourth of the game on a short-handed breakaway with 1:57 left on the clock to send the game to overtime tied 5-5.
The 3-on-3 overtime period was back and forth with a number of great chances both ways. With just over 30 seconds left in overtime, Dorrin Luding made an unbelievable glove save on another Will Highet breakaway and the score remained 5-5 through 65 minutes of play.
Both goaltenders stood tall in the shootout and when Kyle Lamoureux scored through the five-hole with the final shot of round eight, the Flyers took home the extra point and the 6-5 victory.
Dorrin Luding, who improved to 4-0-1 in his last five starts, earned the win in goal as the Flyers outshot Neepawa 34-30. Winkler went 0-for-5 on the power-play and 2-for-6 on the penalty-kill. The Flyers, who improved their overall record to 10-5-1, are now 7-1-0 on the road as they get set to head to Selkirk on Tuesday for their first meeting of the year against the Steelers.
Puck drop at the Selkirk Recreation Complex is 7:30pm with Matt Friesen’s pregame show on Country 88 and online at www.pembinavalleyonline.com getting underway at 7:25pm. You can also video stream the game with a subscription to www.hockeytv.com