A tightly contested game with Neepawa Natives on Friday evening on the road, it was the Power Play that propelled the team to its 3rd straight win.
Neepawa got on the board first, as ex Oil Cap Drayson Skulmoski scored on the power play for Neepawa with less than 2 minutes remaining in the 1st period. Not to be outdone, 20-year old Virden product, Tristen Cross tied things up less than a minute later to send both teams to intermission with a goal apiece.
The 2nd was almost a carbon copy of the 1st. A tightly contested end to end affair, Neepawa went ahead 2-1 at the midway point as Tom Sweeney put the home town team up 2-1. Things looked like they would stay that way until Tristen Cross netted his second of the game on the power play with only 2 seconds left in the period.
Each team fought hard in the 3rd to get the win, but both goalies were sharp for their respective teams shutting the door, pushing the game to overtime.
16 seconds into OT Mackenzie Belinski took a holding penalty. It didn’t take long for Virden to capitalize, as Captain Ben Dalke with a nice set up to Jayden Wojciechowski for the game winner.
Kolby Thornton stopped 30 of 33 taking the hard luck loss while, Oil Capital’s goalie Dalton Dosch got his 2nd win in a row while being solid all night long stopping 29 of 31 shots.
Virden’s record moved to 24-15-3-4 on the season, while Neepawa is now 9-29-4-3.
“It was good to get the two points tonight. Neepawa worked hard and were real solid. On a night when we were a little flat at times, our power play lead the charge, while Dalton was there to shut the door when he needed to, both were difference makers in our win tonight.” Stated Head Coach/GM Troy Leslie.
Next for the Oil Capitals: A rematch vs the Neepawa Natives tonight at the TOGP with game day host TELUS. it’s also the Subway Hockey card night! come get a chance to grab the 2018-19 season hockey cards!