The Steinbach Pistons picked up a win over the Winnipeg Monarchs on Saturday night, 4-1, but it was a game that could have been won by a bigger margin, while also being closer if not for some incredible work by goaltender Easton Thvedt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dental visit<\/p>\n
In the first minute of the game, Steinbach’s Grady Hoffman was clipped with a high stick, leaving him cut and missing pieces off a of couple of teeth. “Makes him look more like a Riders fan,” someone said with a laugh after the game, given Hoffman’s love for his Saskatchewan CFL team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Winnipeg was given a four-minute penalty on the play, but Steinbach failed to capitalize.<\/p>\n
Breaking the ice<\/p>\n
After failing to score on the double minor, Steinbach’s line of William Picklyk, Logan Mehl, and Eric Han went to work.<\/p>\n
The play started in the defensive zone with Zheny Miles flipping a puck out into the neutral zone. Han fought through the Monarchs’ would-be checkers, pushing the puck into the offensive zone. Mehl fell in behind Han, took the drop pass and put a puck on goal, which was then deflected perfectly by Picklyk, who celebrated his third of the season, putting Steinbach up 1-0.<\/p>\n
Minutes later, Steinbach worked the puck around the zone on another power play, winning battles and keeping the play alive in the offensive zone.<\/p>\n
The hard work would pay off when Brody Green whipped a pass over to Brett Kaiser, who fought his way to the front of the net and then found a quiet area all alone, potting his 6th of the year, bringing the game to 2-0. Marek Miller continued his strong weekend of play with the secondary assist.<\/p>\n
Throughout the period, Steinbach would carry the play for stretches. Still, the pesky Monarchs refused to go away, earning many good-looking scoring chances, including a couple of breakaways and even a three-on-one. Still, every chance was turned away by 18-year-old Easton Thvedt, who finished the frame, making 8 recorded saves.<\/p>\n
Second period<\/p>\n
It was more of the same in the middle frame, although Steinbach made some adjustments, limiting Winnipeg in their counterattacks and keeping shots against to a minimum.<\/p>\n
Miles would put Steinbach up 3-0 as the opportunistic defender crashed in toward the net, hunting a loose puck down before anyone else, and burying his 5th, with the assists going to Green and Picklyk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another upcoming dental visit<\/p>\n
Hoffman will have a friend when he goes to the dentist, because Sam Noad will also need a little work done.<\/p>\n
The Pistons captain was battling in front of the net, and as a puck got directed toward the goal, it hit Noad in the mouth, clipping a couple of teeth.<\/p>\n
While the puck went into the net, the official waved it off, keeping it a 3-0 game at the time.<\/p>\n
The Monarchs used the lucky break and would finally get on the board, cutting the lead to 3-1.<\/p>\n
Steinbach held the edge in shots 18-11 in the period and took the lead into the third.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Third period<\/p>\n
It was a relatively quiet and controlled third period, with Steinbach maintaining puck control, but the Monarchs continued to use their speed to cause issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Things opened up at times throughout the period, but Steinbach did a good job supporting in the defensive zone, moved pucks quickly, and never really got running around.<\/p>\n
Cole Cairns put the game away when he scored his second of the year, a beauty from Evan Kabel and Eric Cote, making it a 4-1 game.<\/p>\n
That would be all that Steinbach would need as they picked up their second win of the weekend and banked two solid points on the road.<\/p>\n
Game stats<\/p>\n
Easton Thvedt picked up win number six on the year, finishing with 25 saves.<\/p>\n
Steinbach’s power play was 1-6, and the penalty kill was 4-4.<\/p>\n
Brody Green picked up two assists and now has four helpers in his last two games.<\/p>\n
William Picklyk has three points in his last two games.<\/p>\n
Zhenya Miles, Brett Kaiser, and Marek Miller all picked up a goal and an assist this weekend.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
Steinbach will head out for a road trip starting in Waywayseecappo on Thursday, followed by a contest the following night in Dauphin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Steinbach Pistons picked up a win over the Winnipeg Monarchs on Saturday night, 4-1, but it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-289101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}