Road teams tighten MJHL semifinal series

The Virden Oil Capitals had all the momentum — now they have company.

The top finisher of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s West Division find themselves back in a dogfight after falling 6-4 against the Steinbach Pistons in Game 3 of their best-of-seven semifinals matchup at Tundra Oil and Gas Place Tuesday night.

Grady Hoffman potted in two goals, including an empty netter, and Connor Paronuzzi, Sam Noad, Ryan McDonald, and Cullen Ingebritson also lit the lamp to lift the Pistons halfway out of 2-0 deficit. The Oil Capitals, who collected goals from Cohen Lewko, London Hoilett, Liam Goertzen and Bryce Bryant, captured wins in its first six games of the post-season with a sweep over the Neepawa Titans followed by two straight against Steinbach on the road, and now are hoping to get back in the win column for an all important Game 4.

“It’s definitely a huge game for both teams,” said Oil Capitals forward Colten Worthington pre-game. “It’s totally different possibilities, we either win to go up 3-1 or go tied back to Steinbach, so we gotta definitely take the next step faster than they do for this game. Just taking every shift at a time and trying to play well defensively so we can use our offensive strength that we have to get the win.”

In order to do so, Virden will have to break the trend that’s seen the road team come out on top in all three contests, but its 22-5-2 record at home during the regular season certainly helps its cause.

Worthington believes what’s happening is more of a mental factor if anything.

“I think it’s just the underdog kind of gets you to come out stronger than the home team,” he said. “Steinbach lost their first home game in their first-round series against Portage and I kind of feel like we were just so pumped up to play as the underdog coming into a nice rink with a lot of fans, we just kind of used that excitement in the game and just came out faster. I guess you could say that for them last game too. They just had more of that fight that they didn’t want to go down another game.”

Whether the coaching staff likes it or not, another theme between these two defensive juggernauts has been the number of pucks hitting the back of the net. Virden took Games 1 and 2 thanks to 6-4 and 8-4 decisions, while Game 3 is the same story with a different result.

Both teams have a handful of highly offensive weapons matched with an abundance of depth, which is why the scoresheet has been filled the way it has, but they’re also both built off playing a very structured defensive game with goaltenders who can confidently hold down the fort. Piston head coach Paul Dyck opted to go to backup Easton Thvedt in Game 3 after going with goaltender Chris Quizi the first two games, a winning decision in hindsight but also not a solution to allowing less than a minimum of four goals per game.

Thvedt started again in the pipes for Steinbach, while Braxton Burdeny made his eighth straight playoff appearance in Game 4, which ended after deadline.

Whether or not the scoring trend continues remains to be seen, but Worthington knows his squad will need to tighten up defensively if they want to make a run all the way to the Turnbull Cup.

“I was definitely shocked with how high scoring it was in the first two games and even last game, so we kind of talked about that as a team and just we’re happy with how good our offence is, but if we want to go deeper in the playoffs, we definitely got to allow less goals instead of just praying on our offence to outscore their team,” said Worthington, who tallied two assists each in Games 2 and 3.

“We’re not too worried about how offensive on our line is, but more just the whole 200-foot game. We’ve gotten a lot better defensively where it gets us to better positions in the offensive zone where we can have more time instead of just being held back in the D zone.”

Worthington and the Oil Capitals’ desperation to shore up their defensive play should be even higher considering they won’t be able to rely on special teams nearly as much as they had in the first two outings. The Pistons totalled five penalties in Game 1 and seven more in Game 2 due to their lack of discipline and they paid for it as they gave up two goals in each game.

In Game 3, though, they took only two trips to the sin bin and killed both penalties.

Steinbach steered clear of the extracurriculars and focused more on winning the game, and that’s why Worthington believes his team came up short.

“Since they’re down 2-0 and coming into our rink, they definitely pushed back and we expected them to. We played our game and pushed back as well, but they just gave us a new kind of playing style than what we’re used to them playing,” he said. “They kind of laid back from the chippiness and kind of just focused on their game more, which helped them out a little bit and it just showed us how good of a team they actually are just switching up like that.”

Playing more into their structure and avoiding unnecessary penalties was the Pistons recipe to success and there’s no doubt they will now try and stick to it, but the Oil Capitals are more than comfortable with the hand they’ve been dealt.

“We just kind of talked about it at our meeting, just saying how if we came back home with the series tied 1-1 and then won last game it would be the same scenario as we are right now, so it’s kind of just the way you look at it. We’re still in a good spot.”

Game 5 is set for Friday at 7 p.m. in Steinbach, and if necessary, Game 6 is in Virden on Sunday at 7 p.m., while Game 7 is at the same time on Tuesday at the Southeast Event Centre.

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com