The Virden Oil Capitals scored a short-handed goal just over two minutes into double overtime to beat the Winkler Flyers 1-0 on Friday night, in Game One of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League Quarter Finals. The Flyers were unable to beat Oil Caps’ netminder Ethan Peterson on any of the 58 shots they sent towards the Virden net as the club will now look to even up the series Sunday night in Virden.
Back in the post-season after a one year break, the Winkler Flyers met the Virden Oil Capitals in the post season for the third time in the past five years. During those three head to head playoff series’, overtime had come to be expected with a total of eight of the 14 games being decided after 60 minutes of regulation.
In front of a packed house at the Winkler Recreation Complex, the Orange and Black had a very solid opening 20 minutes, but skated into the first intermission in a scoreless tie. The game opened up in the second period with both teams generating a significant number of chances, but still no goals.
Both Winkler goaltender Dorrin Luding, and Virden netminder Ethan Peterson were the stars of the night as both men stayed perfect through 60 minutes. After a scoreless first overtime period, the Flyers earned themselves a power-play early on in period five.
However, instead of Winkler being able to win the game with an overtime power-play goal, the Oil Capitals managed to take advantage of a fortunate bounce which allowed Jack Einarson to score the game winner, 2:02 into the second overtime period.
Dorrin Luding played a fantastic game in goal for Winkler stopping 37 of the 38 shots that came his way. Dating back to the regular season, Luding has allowed just two goals over his last four starts. The Flyers outshot Virden 58-38 overall, went 0-for-4 on the power-play and 2-for-2 on the penalty-kill.
The Flyers will look to even up this best of seven series on Sunday night when they travel to Virden for Game Two. Puck drop at Tundra Oil & Gas Place is 7:30pm with Matt Friesen’s pregame show live on Country 88.9FM and online at www.pembinavalleyonline.com getting underway at 7:25pm. You can also watch the game with a subscription to www.hockeytv.com. During the 2019-2020 regular season, the Flyers had a 0-2-1 record against the Oil Capitals in Winkler, but a 2-0-1 record in their three games played in Virden.
