The Swan Valley Stampeders found their offence Saturday night, defeating the Winkler Flyers 6-5 in overtime.
Swan Valley’s offence was led by Jackson Betcher who collected two goals, Justin Keck added a goal and an assist, Tyler Park added three assists and Kobe Grant stopped 31/36 for the win.
Saturday night was a completely different game for the Stampeders as they led 3-0 after the first period. Offence was on the agenda tonight, and Head Coach and General Manager Barry Wolff got the result he was looking for after shaking up his lines prior to puck drop. Keck started things off with a beauty of a goal 2:34 into the opening frame beating Dylan Meilun and collecting his fourth of the year. Adam Ward threw the monkey off his back so to speak, scoring his second of the year five and a half minutes later. Tonight’s pre-game interviewee Lare Pahtayken got into the mix, collecting his second of the year with a rocket of a wrist shot just over three and a half minutes later, sending the Stampeders to the dressing room up 3-0.
Winkler found a way back into this game as Jayden McCarthy scored 5:41 into the second period closing the gap just a little bit. Quinn Mulder added to his point collection, scoring three minutes later on the power play to give the Stampeders a 4-1 lead. The Flyers kept buzzing and eventually found the back of the net twice before the end of the period closing the gap to 4-3 and making the third period an interesting one.
Insert penalties troubles here – both teams found themselves trading power plays throughout the entire third period. Betcher scored his first of the game and sixth of the year at 3:16 of the third period. McCarthy added back-to-back goals at 4:28 and again at 10:45 to send this game into overtime.
It didn’t take long to find an overtime hero Saturday night at the Centennial Arena. Park collected a loose puck, sent it up ice to Noah Fladager who found a streaking Betcher and it was curtains for the Winkler Flyers. Swan Valley split the weekend series with the Flyers with both teams picking up three well deserved points.
Final shots on goal
Winkler – 36
Swan Valley – 27
The Stampeders now sit with a record of 10-12-0-2 and have a chance to move to .500 on the year next weekend in Winnipeg when they face the Freeze in back-to-back games. More on that early next week.
Swan Valley has now moved back into a tie with Virden for third place in the West Divison, four games back of the Waywayseecappo Wolverines for second.