February 27
Winkler, MB – Tyler Kirkup was the hero on Friday night as he scored the game winning goal with just 40 seconds left to lift the Caps to a 4-3 win over the Winkler Flyers.
The Caps, who were once again playing two forwards short of a full lineup got the opening goal of the game off the stick of Drake Bodie (18th). Virden outshot Winkler 9-2 in the first.
The 2nd period was all about the power play as the teams combined for four power play markers on just four opportunities.
The Flyers took a 2-1 lead less than eight minutes in as Kurt Sonne and Scott Gall beat Sean Kuehn with the extra attacker.
Just moments later, on a Caps PP Ben Dalke snapped home a rocket shot for his 26th of the season to tie it up a two.
The lone even strength goal of the period came off the stick of Kaiden Jarvis. His 13th of the year gave Winkler their 2nd lead of the game.
Before the buzzer would sound, Zach Whitecloud fired a seeing eye point shot past Nathan Warren to tie things up at three.
The Flyers outshot Virden 19-8 in the middle stanza.
In the third, after getting multiple looks around the Flyer net, Tyler Kirkup grabbed a loose puck from the corner, drove to the net and tucked it under the pad of Nathan Warren to give the Caps the lead late.
Sean Kuehn and the Caps defense would shut down the Flyers from there and in fact only allowed 3 shots in the third period.
Kuehn made 21 saves for the win while Warren faced 28 shots, stopping 24.
The Caps win moves them to 36-20-1 on the year and keeps them in 4th place.
The Winnipeg Blues picked up a win in OT last night over Selkirk meaning they keep pace, just 3 points back.
The Blues have just 2 game remaining which is four available points. (Puts them to 74). A single Oil Capitals point in their remaining three games would clinch home ice advantage in the MJHL Playoffs.
The Flyers are in town tonight for the rematch, game time is 7:30!
Scoring Summary – Click Here