Pistons top Natives in game three

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Published on Thursday, March 16, 2017

By Eoin Devereux

The Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

A dominant second period, which featured four unanswered goals, pushed the Steinbach Pistons to a 5-2 victory over the Neepawa Natives on Tuesday, Mar. 14, at the T.G. Smith Centre. With the win, Steinbach has now claimed a 2-1 lead in the MJHL best of seven opening round playoff series.

Pistons rookie Riley Bruce opened the scoring at the mid-point of the first period to make it 1-0. Neepawa answered back before the end of the first, however, as Reigan Buchanan notched a short-handed goal to tie the game at 1-1 after 20 minutes of play.

The second period saw Steinbach take their game to a whole different level, scoring four times. The scoring barrage started just 1:20 into the action, with a power-play goal from Tyler Anderson.  Then, Landon Plett scored a few minutes later to increase the lead to 3-1. The Pistons did not let up, as they tallied another power-play goal with just over nine minutes left in the period. William Koop secured that marker. Koop then notched another point, his third of the night, on an assist to a Bradley Schoonbaert effort. This offensive onslaught forced Neepawa to make a goaltending change in the second intermission in an attempt to energize the team heading into the final period. 

While Buchanan scored a power-play goal in the third period to cut the lead to 5-2, it was simply not enough, as the Natives were humbled by a 5-2 margin. Steinbach outshot Neepawa 48-15 in the game. The Natives went 1-for-6 on the power-play, while the Piston’s replied with a 2-for-7 effort. With this win, Steinbach will head into game four at the Yellowhead Centre on Friday, Mar. 17, with a two games to one series lead. The start time for that matchup is 7:30 p.m.