The Swan Valley Stampeders returned to the win column Saturday night, defeating the Neepawa Titans 7-4.
The Stampeders offence was led by Brad Fortin (3G, 1A), Carter Cockburn (2G, 1A) and Deepkaran Hans who collected three assists while Dylan Black stopped 35/39 shots he faced in the win.
It was a game of special teams Saturday night at the Centennial Arena. Seven of the eleven goals scored by both teams were either on the power play or short-handed in a barn burner.
In the words of the Joker, “And here we go.”
Jaeger Lapointe got things rolling just over six minutes into tonight’s contest, silencing the Stampeder crowd with his 18th of the year. Fortin tied the game at 11:14 of the first period, scoring his first of the night and ninth of the year on the power play. Ethan Matchim threw the monkey off his back, scoring his first ever MJHL goal on the power play at 15:48. Fortin threw the opposing team’s players off the ensuing face-off, snapping home his second of the game, on the power play, four seconds later and giving his team a 3-1 lead heading into the dressing room.
Jacob Paler-Chow added to the Stampeders lead, collecting his seventh of the year 3:40 into the second period, also a power play marker. Tristan Thompson beat Black less than a minute later, collecting his 11th of the year pulling the Titans to within two. Connor Brust collected a power play marker, scoring his eighth of the year 50 seconds later. Dallon Wilton tied the game 4-4 with just under seven minutes remaining in the middle frame, collecting his 10th of the year on the power play.
The Stampeders were able to find a way to finish this one off tonight scoring three goals in the third period to win a wild one at the Corral. Fortin collected his third of the game at 5:01, Cockburn scored an unreal short-handed, 3-on-1 marker for his 12th of the year and then added an empty net goal to seal the victory with 55 seconds left in the game.
Final shots on goal
Neepawa – 39
Swan Valley – 28
Swan Valley rebounded in a big way Saturday night on home ice, improving their record to 17-17-0-2, keeping ahead of both the Titans and the Virden Oil Capitals for third overall place in the West Division.
These two teams will meet twice more but this time it will be at the Madhouse on Mountain in Neepawa next Friday Jan. 28 and Saturday Jan. 29. Both games start at 7:30p.m. and can be viewed on hockey.tv.com.