It was a fitting end to a great night at Tundra Oil and Gas Place as the Oil Caps defeated the Winkler Flyers 8-2 on Friday night, and in the process, kept their lengthy winning streak alive.
“I thought we battled through some real tight games here the past little while and were able to come out on the right end of them and get some points, so I was really happy that our guys could beat a team by that margin tonight,” said Tyson Ramsey, Oil Caps assistant coach. “We played really hard.”
The Oil Caps opened up a three-goal lead in the first period on goals from Brett Paddock at 5:35 on the power play, Kolten Kanaski at 14:24 (also on the power play) and Tristan Thompson at the 16:22 mark.
Ben Dalke’s 11thof the year at 5:48 of the second made it 4-0 before the Flyers responded with a tally of their own at 10:52 as Everett Bestland’s third of the season made it 4-1. The Oil Caps kept coming however as Hunter Cloutier’s 14thof the year at 13:49 – the club’s third power play marker on the night – helped Virden regain their four-goal advantage.
After Erik Dahl’s tally at 17:14 made it 5-2, Jack Einarson would respond for Virden approximately a minute and a half later (18:40) making it 6-2 for the Oil Caps after 40 minutes.
Dylan Halliday’s ninth of the season at 5:25 of the third followed by Blake Sidoni’s eighth of the season would round out the scoring as the Oil Caps picked up their eighth win in a row in front of more than 1,000 folks who were in attendance for Farmery Estate, Virden Truck and Trailer and Valleyview Co-op Pack the House night.
Dalton Dosch made 23 stops to pick up the win in net for Virden, while Britt League and Riley Morgan split duties between the pipes for Winkler in the loss.
Special milestone for Oil Caps head coach
The win was a big one for Oil Caps head coach Troy Leslie, who picked up his 200thwin of this MJHL career! Congrats coach!
“Congratulations Troy on reaching 200,” said former Oil Cap Zach Whitecloud, who is now property of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights via Twitter. “Will always be grateful for this organization and its only head coach for giving me an opportunity when nobody else would. Great person and great coach. On to the next milestone!”
Next up for the Oil Caps: Tomorrow night in Selkirk against the Steelers. Game time: 7:30 p.m.