Virden goaltender Sean Kuehn stone walled the Flyers shooters as the visiting Oil Capitals slipped past Winkler 1-0 on Saturday night snapping the Flyers five game winning streak. Winkler outshot Virden 37-18 and peppered Kuehn with many great scoring opportunities only to come up just short in the end.
Playing in front of family and friends during the club’s annual Parent/Billet weekend, the Flyers came out of the gate hard during a very fast paced opening period. With their goaltender holding back the Flyers attack, the Oil Caps opened the scoring when Ben Dalke snuck his shot under the left pad of Nathan Warren and across the goal line to put the visitors in front 1-0.
Despite trailing by a goal, the Flyers were outshooting Virden 13-9 in the first 20 minute period. For the next 40 minutes the Flyers would outshoot the Oil Caps 24-9 but still could not get any of their chances past goaltender Sean Kuehn.
Even after a wild push at the end of regulation with the extra attacker on the ice, the Flyers would come up short, losing for just the second time in their last 10 games.
Nathan Warren was equally as impressive in goal for Winkler, making 17 saves on the 18 shots that he faced. The Flyers power-play generated a significant amount of chances but failed to capitalize, going 0-for-7. Winkler also went 5-for-5 on the penalty-kill.
The Flyers (34-12-3) will return to the ice on Friday, February 12th when the club travels to Neepawa for their fifth meeting of the year against the Natives. The Flyers are perfect against Neepawa this season outscoring them 32-4 while winning the first four meetings. You can catch Friday’s game live on Country 88.9FM and online at www.pembinavalleyonline.com with Matt Friesen’s pregame show at 7:25pm.
Great Canadian Oil Change Three Stars
1st Star – G Sean Kuehn (Virden)
2nd Star – G Nathan Warren (Winkler)
3rd Star – F Tristan Keck (Winkler)
Winkler Canvas Hardest Working Flyer
Kayden Jarvis