The Swan Valley Stampeders two-game win streak was snapped Sunday afternoon, losing to the Winnipeg Freeze 6-3 at the Jonathan Toews Sportsplex.
Swan Valley’s offence was led by Quinn Mulder scoring a goal and adding an assist, Carter Cockburn and Brad Fortin each collected a goal while Kobe Grant suffered the loss in net.
The first period was back and forth action between these two teams, allowing several off the rush chances but neither team could solve Grant or Keegan Gordon until late in the period. Callum Fortin picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone, skated down the wall, dropped the puck to Jayden Mosiondz, he made a heads-up play sending it across the blue-line to a wide-open Collin Jennings who sent a shot on goal that deflected off of Mulder and in. The Stampeders held a 1-0 lead heading into the dressing room after 20 minutes of play.
The second period was certainly a wild one. The Freeze scored three straight goals – two back-to-back power play goals – to take a 3-1 lead. Nathan Driver scored his first of three, tying the game at 6:08 of the second period, snapping Grant’s shutout streak at 86 minutes. Ryder Ringor gave the Freeze their first lead of the weekend scoring 59 seconds later. Driver gave Winnipeg a two-goal cushion before the Stampeders snapped out of their funk and found the back of the net themselves. Captain Cockburn was able to pick off an errant pass, took off and scored a beautiful unassisted, short-handed breakaway goal to pull the Stampeders within one heading into the dressing room.
Brad Fortin pulled the Stampeders even with the Freeze 10:04 into the third period, collecting his third of the year on a nifty pass by Emile Pichette. The Freeze scored three straight goals (Ryder Ringor at 13:46, Zach Ashworth at 18:31 and Driver at 19:56), to defeat the Stampeders 6-3 Sunday afternoon and snap their two-game winning streak.
The Stampeders cannot seem to find a way to win more than two games at a time this season and now fall to a record of 11-13-0-2 on the season. They will return home tonight and get ready for a weekend set with the Selkirk Steelers at home Friday, Dec. 10 and Saturday, Dec. 11. Tickets are available online at stampedershockey.com, at Patty’s Sports Excellence or at the door.
A reminder to those who live in Manitoba, make sure to purchase a 50/50 online through our website. You can purchase all week leading up to our game Friday, Dec. 10, a game presented by the Swan Valley CTC Toys 4 U Toy Drive. More details on that early next week.