Despite out playing and out shooting their opponent by a wide margin on Tuesday night, the Winkler Flyers were forced to settle for a tough 4-2 loss at the hands of the Virden Oil Capitals in their second and final game at the MJHL Showcase in Winnipeg.
After earning a 4-1 win over the OCN Blizzard on Sunday night, the Orange and Black had another strong performance at the Seven Oaks Arena in Winnipeg. For the second straight game the Flyers opened the scoring and outshot the Oil Caps 10-3 in the first 20 minutes.
The goal came off the stick of rookie defenseman Drake Burgin who took the pass from Eric Fawkes before beating Virden netminder Dalton Dosch over the right pad. Fellow rookie Josh Kagan also assisted on Burgin’s fourth of the season.
The Flyers continued to pile up the shots in the middle period but it was the Oil Caps who tied the game midway through the period. The game went tied at a goal a piece into the second intermission with the Flyers leading 26-10 on the shot clock.
Virden took their first lead of the game just past the seven minute mark of the third when a shot squeaked through the legs of goaltender Riley Morgan, who was making his second straight start for the Flyers.
Then with 9:36 left on the clock, Marcel Berube carried the puck down the right wing side, cut to the front of the net, and sent a pass back to Connor Beebe who fired a shot through the five hole of Dosch to tie the game 2-2. It was Berube’s first point as a Flyer and Beebe’s fifth goal of the season and third in his last four games.
Unfortunately for Winkler, Virden would get that one right back as they would take advantage of a Winkler icing call and score on a one-timer off the ensuing faceoff to regain their one goal lead.
The Flyers pulled Morgan in the final minute looking to tie the game with the extra attacker. Moments after a Winkler shot clanged off the goal post, a Virden clearing attempt found the back of the Flyers’ net at the far side of the ice to give the Oil Caps an insurance marker with 31 seconds left in the game.
Riley Morgan took the loss in goal for Winkler as the Flyers outshot Virden 36-18. The Flyers were 0-for-2 on the power-play and 4-for-4 on the penalty-kill.
The Flyers and Oil Capitals will meet again on Friday night at Tundra Oil & Gas Place in Virden. You can catch the game live on Country 88 and online at www.pembinavalleyonline.com with Matt Friesen’s pregame show getting underway at 7:25pm. You can also video stream the game with a subscription to www.hockeytv.com