On a night, when the Selkirk Steelers “backs” were against the wall, they pushed back.
The Steelers would take a 1-0 lead 29 seconds into the 1st period, when Noah Basarab would get his second of the series. Nate Halvorsen would make it 2-0 for the home town team midway through the 1st, taking the Steelers to the 1st period break up 2-0.
18-year old veteran, Hunter Cloutier, would get his second of the series, cutting the Steelers lead in 1/2, midway through the 2nd with assists to his line mates; Jack Einarson and Josh Belcher. That would be as close as Virden would get to tying the game. Colby Dudek would put the home side up by 2 again, netting his 1st of the playoffs on the power play at the 14:45 mark of the 2nd period.
The 3rd, opened up much the same as the 1st, as Blake Burr added an insurance marker on the power play in the first minute for the Steelers adding to their lead, making it 4-1. Oil Capital’s Rookie, Jess Mistelbacker, made it close in the final stages of the game, bringing Virden to within two at 4-2. With the Oil Capitals, pulling Dalton Dosch out for the extra attacker in the final 2 minutes, the team couldn’t muster any more goals.
The aforementioned, Dosch, was strong in the net again for Virden, stopping 38 of 42 in the loss. Zachary Bennet stopped 24 of 26 in-route to his 1st win of the series.
GM/Head Coach had this to say about game 3, “”We played a desperate team last night. Their backs were somewhat against the wall and they came at us with everything they had to start the game, and we couldn’t quite rebound. We got the ship steered right as the game went on but was little too late. Give our guys credit though, we battled against some adversity being down early and keep chipping away trying to come back. We will have to be ready and be more prepared to battle for 60 minutes in game 4 tomorrow.
Oil Caps Tid Bits: Patrick Comeau played his second consecutive game of the series for Virden, playing solidly in place of the Logan Rands. Rands is out day to day with UBI. Blake Sidoni sat out his 2nd consecutive game with his suspension from the major call in game 1. Sidoni is elgibile to return in game 4 of the series tomorrow in Virden. Austin Johnston is out day to day with UBI. Parker Brakebill didn’t now dress.