The Winkler Flyers picked up their second win of the weekend on Saturday night, getting past the visiting OCN Blizzard 6-4 on home ice. Justin Svenson and Sulivan Shortreed chipped in with two goals each as the Orange and Black moved to 2-2 on the year.
Just 24 hours after earning their first win of the season in Winnipeg, the Flyers played host to their rivals from the north. One of the negative themes from the first three games of the regular season was a slow start, but on Saturday night, the Flyers start was anything but slow.
Just 3:46 into the game, Sulivan Shortreed tipped in a point shot from newcomer Nathan Poolman and the Flyers had an early 1-0 lead. Then just 27 seconds later, Shortreed assisted on Alex Cattani’s second goal of the year and Winkler had doubled their lead to 2-0.
The Flyers added to their lead just past the halfway point of the first period when Justin Svenson scored his first of the season to give Winkler a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes.
The Blizzard cut Winkler’s lead to 3-1 just over eight minutes into the second period, but Winkler managed to get that one back just 61 seconds later. With a Flyer in the box, Assistant Captain Griffin Leonard was sprung on a short-handed breakaway, and fired his shot between the legs of OCN goaltender Zack Cloutier to restore the Flyers’ three goal lead. Brody Moffatt and Drake Burgin assisted on Leonard’s first of the season. The assist for Burgin increased his season opening point streak to four games.
Later in the period, the Flyers would strike again as Justin Svenson and Bryce Krauter assisted on Sulivan Shortreed’s second of the game to put Winkler in front 5-1 after 40 minutes.
OCN pushed back in the third period and cut the Flyers’ lead to 5-2 with an early goal on the power-play. The Flyers scored a pretty power-play goal of their own a few minutes later when Justin Svenson toe dragged around an OCN defender and picked the far side of the net for his second goal of the evening. Jayden McCarthy and Brody Moffatt drew the assists on the goal to give Winkler a 6-2 advantage.
The visitors managed to score again a few minutes later and then again on the power-play to make it a two goal game with nearly 13 minutes left in regulation. Unfortunately for the Blizzard, that is as close as they would get as Winkler netminder Dylan Meilun would keep the Blizzard at bay the rest of the period and the Flyers improved their record to 2-2 with a 6-4 victory on home ice.
Meilun earned his first MJHL victory stopping 25 of the 29 shots that came his way. The Flyers outshot OCN 38-29 overall. The Flyers were 1-for-3 on the power-play and 2-for-4 on the penalty-kill.
The Flyers next game will be at the Manitoba Junior Hockey League Showcase in Winnipeg on Monday afternoon against the Portage Terriers (3pm). You can catch the broadcast live from the Seven Oaks Arena beginning with Matt Friesen’s pregame show on Country 88 at 2:55pm. You can also live stream the game on www.pembinavalleyonline.com. You can watch every Flyers’ game with a subscription to www.hockeytv.com
