MJHL clubs facing elimination in semis

The Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Turnbull Cup championship matchup may come sooner than anticipated as the Waywayseecappo Wolverines and Steinbach Pistons find themselves on the ropes trailing 3-1 in their respective best-of-seven semifinal tilts.

OIL CAPS UP 3-1

After three consecutive games going to the road team, the Virden Oil Capitals snapped the home snide in convincing fashion with a 6-2 victory over the Pistons at Tundra Oil & Gas Place late Wednesday.

Virden’s rookie defenceman Jett Deschamps notched the game winning tally seven minutes 21 second into the middle frame, while Nathan Schaefer, Brooks Siemens, Liam Goertzen, London Hoilett and Brandon’s Colten Worthington also racked up the scoresheet to put their team within one win of a return to the final, when they lost to Steinbach in five games in 2023.

Netminder Braxton Burdeny bounced back with a 27-save performance for the Oil Capitals, while Easton Thvedt turned aside 35 shots in his club’s loss.

“That game is a huge one for us,” said Virden forward Hoilett on Thursday. “We definitely didn’t want to go back into their home barn 2-2, so we kind of wanted to take their momentum away from the night previous. It’s definitely just huge to get that one.”

Hoilett said the key to getting back on track was focusing on making the rink long for their opponents. They wanted to limit time spent in their own zone and forced pucks in behind Steinbach’s defencemen to wear them down and in turn, create some more offence.

It was a plan well executed.

The Oil Capitals totalled 18 shots to the Pistons’ six in the first period alone and after 60, the shot clock was 41-29 in favour of the home side. They completely peppered goaltender Thvedt — who made his second straight appearance after starter Chris Quizi lost the net due to 14 goals allowed in the first two contests of this series — and a big reason was specialty teams.

Steinbach abandoned its disciplined style of game that got its win in Game 3 and surrendered three power-play goals on six attempts, collecting an abysmal 50 per cent on the penalty kill. They also recorded just one goal on four attempts in an attempt to make up for their costly mistakes, but clearly that wasn’t enough.

“We tried to make sure that we weren’t stuck on last game and we just wanted to get back to the way that we know we can play and we did exactly that and I feel like we shut them down,” Hoilett said. “We did a really good job of staying out of all that extracurricular stuff and just sticking to our game and I think everyone’s been pretty good mentally and pretty disciplined, so I think that’s been huge for us this playoffs.

“We just playing hard and kept our feet moving and we play with a lot of pace, so I feel like over the span of a seven-game series, obviously this being the fourth game, I think it’s hard for teams to keep up with us and so they’re being forced to maybe not move their feet and kind of try and hold on to us and slow us down and we were able to capitalize.”

Hoilett, who spent the last three seasons in the Western Hockey League with the Calgary Hitmen and Vancouver Giants, collected his fifth goal of the post-season Wednesday with assists from Ty Plaisier and Austin Osiowy. The 21-year-old Winnipeg product came into this season as a grizzled veteran and proved to be a significant asset to his team as both a leader in the room and a speedy, relentless forward who can play in all situations.

He’s taken a lot of pride in his growth over the years.

“I feel like my confidence is all-time high right now,” said Hoilett. “Obviously going from maybe more of a role player in the WHL to someone who gets to play in all kind of roles, it’s definitely been huge for my confidence and on top of that, a lot of it is also just the culture in this dressing room. I feel like everyone plays better when you’re happy to be there, every single day, you’re excited to see the boys and everyone’s very encouraging here, not even just in the rink, but also outside of the rink.”

Hoilett chalked up 32 goals and 58 points this year playing alongside Liam Goertzen and Carson Wright, a trio that’s combined for 24 points in these playoffs.

Hoilett believes all their play styles are built for one another, which is why they’ve seen so much success on both sides of the rink.

“We’re all pretty fast players,” he said. “They’re very skilled so they make my job easy in terms of getting pucks and just shooting them pretty quickly. I just try to get in spots and I know that they’re smart enough and skilled enough to find me.

“We’ve got fire power from all angles and defensively they’re just really smart and aware in our own zone and I think we all work off each other pretty well. And when it comes to our D zone, I have all the faith in the world and those guys and we trust each other and I think it’s paid dividends.”

He and the Oil Capitals will look to close out the Pistons in Game 5 this evening in Steinbach, but it won’t come easy. The fourth game is typically the hardest to win and Hoilett doesn’t expect any different this time, especially on the road. But, if they take the crowd out of the game quickly, then it’s an even playing field.

Virdena after all, has gotten off to a 3-0 lead or more in all three of its wins this series.

“The key is to just come out hard, come out as fast as we can, and take away any hope that they’ve got in themselves to try and take that series back,” said Hoilett. “We really got to focus on our start and after we all get two or three shifts in, we just gotta settle down and start kind of playing our game and sticking to what we know how to do.”

WAYWAY DOWN 3-1

The Wolverines entered their second-round series against the league-leading Niverville Nighthhawks as the underdogs and now appear to be even bigger ones entering Game 5 tonight on the road.

After splitting the first two games of the series, Wayway has come up short in two straight following a 4-2 loss in Niverville on Monday and a 3-0 defeat at home on Wednesday evening.

Merik Boles’ first of the playoffs 8:06 into the second period on the man advantage ended up being the game winner, before Marlen Edwards and Adam Vigfusson added insurance markers in the third frame to take a commanding 3-1 series lead.

Goaltender Austin Dubinsky stopped all 24 shots to capture his seventh victory of the playoffs for the Nighthawks, while Jase Wareham made 25 saves in the loss.

The Wolverines have found twine just six times this series against an extremely stingy Niverville club and have allowed 10 goals the other way. All four contests thus far have been decided by one or two goals (not including empty netters), and the same is to be expected for what will be a desperate Wayway squad.

Both teams have drawn first blood twice this series and the team to do that has won three of the four meetings, so skating off to a quick start will be crucial.

If the Wolverines find a way to extend this series, Game 6 will be back at the Waywayseecappo Arena Complex on Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com