The Virden Oil Capitals turned in a gutsy performance on Friday night, defeating the Swan Valley Stampeders 4-1 at Tundra Oil and Gas Place.
The club found itself in the penalty box a bit too much for head coach Troy Leslie’s liking, but the club persevered, killing off several minor penalties throughout the contest.
“You like to keep it to three to four minors in a game and we ended up taking three minors in the first period and it just kept building from there,” Leslie said. “But we gutted it out and we did a good job killing them. With this being our third game in four nights, it was a really good effort.”
Leslie praised the work of goaltender Dalton Dosch, who turned aside 40 shots to help preserve the victory for Virden.
“He was good tonight,” Leslie said. “He was solid. We had to kill some penalties and your best penalty killer is generally your goaltender so he was very good tonight.”
Tyler Kirkup and Jeran Knorr scored within the first five minutes of the first period to give the Oil Caps a 2-0 lead before Shane Roulette replied for Swan Valley later in the stanza . Kirklan Lycar and Kyle Salaway each netted tallies in the second and third periods respectively.
After a tough loss the night before to the Winnipeg Blues, Leslie is all smiles tonight.
“It was a good way to answer back. The guys worked hard and they deserved the win.”
The Oil Caps next game is on the road in Portage on Sunday night.