The Steinbach Pistons will play their fifth game in their current six game road trip Thursday night when they match up against the defending Turnbull Cup Champion Portage Terriers at the PCU centre.
The Pistons ended a three game losing streak with a 9-3 win over the Dauphin Kings this past Saturday. The win also marked the first time Steinbach has ever beat the Kings, having lost all of their previous 13 meetings against Dauphin the past three seasons.
"Everybody's pretty positive after the weekend," says Pistons Head Coach Paul Dyck. "It was some what relieving for a lot of the guys to break our scoring drought and to score nine against a verteran club is very positive for us."
Despite winning the game in such a convincing fashion it did take it's toll on the blue, white and black. Steinbach had three players injured against the Kings and now have five players tending to their wounds.
Forwards Nic Kobelka, Sean Higgins, and Trent Genyk are long-term, while defenseman Matt Franczyk and Dustin Loeppky are day-to-day.
"We have to juggle our lines no doubt," says Dyck. "The most important thing is that all our guys know our system and everybody is on the same page. If our guys know there job it will work."
Since Steinbach will potentially have four forwards sitting out Thursday night the Pistons quickly acquired 5' 8" 165lb forward Josh Mackay from Calgary, Alberta. Dyck says Mackay has a chance to make an immediate impact.
"Josh is an offensive player. He played midget in Calgary and was a late cut by the (SJHL) Melville Millionaires. He will be in the lineup Thursday. He hasn't been on the ice a lot prior to coming here. So we are trying to get his conditioning up so he is ready to play in a game."
The puck will drop between the 3-5-0 Pistons and the 5-1-1 Terriers Thursday 7:30pm at the PCU Centre.
Fri, May 3, 1:00 PM
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