The Winkler Flyers dropped a 5-0 decision to the Steinbach Pistons on Monday afternoon in their final road game of the regular season. The Pistons scored three times in the second period, and twice more in the third to split their six game season series against the Flyers with three wins a piece.
Coming off a 6-2 win in Selkirk on Friday night, the Flyers travelled to the TG Smith Centre in Steinbach looking to string back to back wins together for the first time since the first weekend of February. With both the Flyers and Pistons having won just twice over their last five games, the two teams played an even, fast paced opening period.
Early in the second period, just moments after a glorious chance by the Flyers at the other end, the Pistons opened the scoring for the fifth time in six games against Winkler. The Flyers pushed hard for the equalizer in the moments that followed only to find themselves coming up just short. In the final five minutes of the middle period, Steinbach scored two more and led 3-0 after 40 minutes.
The Flyers still had some fight left in them in the third, but the offense just wouldn’t come. Steinbach extended their lead to 4-0 in the first four minutes of the period and scored again with seven minutes left and the Flyers would be forced to settle for the 5-0 loss.
Dorrin Luding made 27 saves in the loss as the Pistons outshot the Flyers 32-25. Winkler went 0-for-4 on the power-play and 4-for-5 on the penalty-kill.
The Flyers (35-16-5) will play their final four games of the regular season at home, starting Tuesday night against the Selkirk Steelers. Puck drop at the Winkler Rec Complex is 7:30pm. You can catch the game live on www.hockeytv.com. The Flyers have won their last five games in a row at home and 12 of their last 13 games played at the Winkler Recreation Complex. They are also 3-1 against the Steelers this season.