Tonight’s Game Notes:
Welcome fans to tonight’s MJHL action featuring the visiting Winkler Flyers (28-14-11) and your home townVirden Oil Capitals (28-15-8).Tonight’s game is School Patrol Appreciation Night brought to you byManitoba Public Insurance.
These two teams are back at it again. After not playing head-to-head until November 30 of this season, Virden is facing Winkler for the fourth time in their last 12 games. Even though the Virden has taken each of the four meetings on the season, don’t expect this one to be a run-a-way for either team. These are a BIG two points on the line tonight as things continue to tighten up between the 2nd and 5th place clubs.
Virden comes into tonight, winners of four straight. Meanwhile, the Flyers had a character come from behind effort last night in Swan Valley with three third period goals to force overtime and pick up a much needed point in an eventual shoot out loss.
The key for Virden’s success tonight will be keeping the Flyers’ 40-goal man, Tristan Keck, in-check. He’s running away with the league goal scoring race with a 10-goal cushion over the second highest scorer. With that being said, even keeping him to just one goal could be considered a success. Just to drive home his importance to this Flyers line-up a little bit more, he has accounted for 23% of the goals scored by the team on the season. Scott Gall and Cam Whyte each have 22 goals, and then no one else has more than 13 on the season. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone when Keck was named a finalist on Friday for the Steve “Boomer” Hawrysh Memorial Trophy, awarded to the league’s most valuable player. Given his impressive resume on the season, he should garner some serious consideration for the award up against Portage’s Captain, Tanner Jago, and Swan Valley’s starting net minder, Graham Hunt.
The Oil Caps made a splash in the MJHL finalists pool on Friday as well. Dylan Thiessen(Rookie of the Year), Jordan Greig (Defenseman of the Year), and Soren Frederiksen(Hockey Ability and Sportsmanship) all received finalist honours in each of their respective categories. The MJHL award winners are set to be announced this week with the trophy presentations taking place at a home game later in the month. Good luck to all three of the Virden finalists. Speaking of Frederiksen, he is currently on an impressive 11-game point streak right now (four-game goal scoring streak), picking up 12 points (6 G, 6 A) during that span.
The Oil Caps Year-End Awards Banquet presented by FoxTail Hauling will take place onThursday, March 5th at the Sunrise Banquet Hall. Tickets will be available for purchase at the next Oil Caps home game on Rain Check Night – Wed., Feb. 25th vs. OCN Blizzard.
Make sure you pick up your TWO free tickets for the Pack the Place II Vacation Giveaway contest presented by All Season Properties tonight. You can put your tickets in the draw bin on the table next to the 50/50 station.
The countdown is on. Game 52 tonight! Enjoy.