The Oil Caps dropped a tough one on the road to the Winkler Flyers by a score of 4-2 on Saturday night.
The home team got on the board first at the 15:24 mark as Drake Burgin’s sixth of the year made it 1-0 for Winkler. The Oil Caps quickly responded however as Dylan Halliday’s 10thof the season tied the score before the Flyers regained their one-goal advantage just nine seconds later as Brady Moffatt fired home his 12thof the campaign to give Winkler a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.
The Flyers would add on to their lead as Collin Caulfield made it 3-1 a little over two minutes into the middle frame (2:11) on the power play before Jesse Korytko’s 11thtally of the year gave the home team a three-goal lead at the 13:03 mark. The Oil Caps would claw back with one tally of their own as Tristen Cross brought Virden back to within two at 16:53 but that’s as close as they’d get on this night. A scoreless third period resulted in the Oil Caps dropping this contest, and in the process, falling to 20-13-2-4 on the year.
“I thought we did some good things, particularly in the third period, but at the end of the day, we didn’t play the right way consistently enough right throughout our lineup to beat a team that outworked us for portions of the game,” said Oil Caps assistant coach Tyson Ramsey.
Britt League turned aside 35 shots in net for Winkler to pick up the win, while Dalton Dosch stopped 29 pucks directed his way in the loss.
“We had our chances to come back on them but ran into a hot goalie and struggled to find the back of the net,” said Oil Caps captain Ben Dalke.
“There was points in the game that we played well but we took the second period off and it cost us,” added Caps forward Kolten Kanaski.
Next up for the Oil Caps:Virden travels to Winnipeg tonight to battle the Blues. Game time: 6:30 p.m.