The Steinbach Pistons fell to the Winnipeg Blues 4-2 Saturday night, despite outshooting them 45-26.

The Blues are the hottest team in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League at the moment, having won 12 of their last 13 games.  Most of the action took place in the second and third periods, as the first ended in a scoreless tie.

The Pistons came out strong in the second period, controlling play for much of the first half of it.  However, Winnipeg broke the scoreless tie 12:16 into the frame to give them a 1-0 lead that would stand at the end of the period, despite some great scoring chances for Steinbach.

The third period started poorly for Steinbach, as a bad giveaway in front of their own net lead to a 2-0 Winnipeg lead just over six minutes in.  However, the Pistons quickly countered when Jonah Wasylak scored on the powerplay to cut the lead to one just three minutes later.

Following the goal the Pistons pressed hard, controlling the play for the better part of the next eight minutes.  However, the Blues expanded their lead to two with just 2:30 left on the clock when goalie Corey Koop was beaten top shelf.

Pistons Head Coach Paul Dyck says while many teams can be discouraged by a late goal, they kept pressing.

"We have a pretty resilient group.  After they scored we said we still had enough time to get one, and you never know what happens when you get one.  That's what happened, and with 46 seconds left we had a faceoff down in their zone, and we had two good scoring opportunities at that point.

The Pistons brought themselves back into the game with the aforementioned goal when Garret Schmitz's point shot found the back of the net to pull Steinbach within one.  However, despite having a powerplay and several good scoring chances in the final 30 seconds of the came, they just couldn't come up with the tie breaker.  Winnipeg would add an empty net goal with five seconds left to bring the final to 4-2.

Dyck says after coming off a poor game Friday night against Winkler, the team had a great bounce back effort, which was evidenced by their strong play.

"We had a pretty good effort for 60 minutes, and that's something we're always looking for.  Regardless of the result, we're looking to play a certain way.  We were right in it.  We felt we could have won that game.  We had a lot of opportunities in the third period, and I thought the last ten minutes we were borderline dominant.  But that's the way it goes, we had a couple of turnovers that cost us and they're a team that can put the puck in the net.  Otherwise I was very pleased with the teams effort tonight."

Steinbach's next game is in Portage Sunday night.  The two teams are currently tied for second place in the Addison Division (Winnipeg is in first), although Portage has three games at hand.

Prioir to the game, Pistons defenceman and team captain Kyle Rous was named as a first-team all-star, while defenceman Justin Beaudry was named to the all-star rookie team.

Photos courtesy Dave Mikkola