On the back of goalie Roman Bengert's 31 saves, the first place Steinbach Pistons blanked the Dauphin Kings 3-0 at the TG Smith Centre on Saturday night, making it 8 straight victories for Steinbach.

Both teams came out and tried to establish the physical presence early and that resulted in a lot of spirited discussion between the two teams and more then a few penalty minutes. The teams combined for 28 penalty minutes in the opening period. Neither team scored a goal and heading into the second, the emotions were high.

In the second period, the chippy play continued and at the midway point, Landon Plett got loose and was sprung on a breakaway. The 20 year old forward was hooked up and it resulted in a penalty shot. Plett went in, went backhand-forehand but was denied by the stretched out pad of the Dauphin netminder.

Seconds later, a pass from Jack Johnson found Plett out front and he snapped it home against his former team to make it 1-0 Steinbach. Plett has 16 goals on the season with Johnson and Drew Anderson picking up the assists. The period came to an end with the Pistons up 1-0.

In the third, rookie forward Vaughn Dupre converted on a perfect saucer pass from Mack Graham while Ryan Carlson also picked up an assist to make it 2-0 Pistons. Dupre picked up his 8th goal of the season. 

Later in the period, it was another rookie getting into the scoring as Jack Johnson tipped home is first goal as a Steinbach Pistons and first in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League. The forward from Bemidji, MN, was all smiles after the game. "Oh it felt really good. It's nice to get that monkey off my back." Johnson also caught a high-stick earlier in the game and will be needed to see a dentist. "Caught a baseball swing and chipped my (front) teeth. They were already loose. Hurts a little less after scoring though."

Roman Bengert collected his 5th shutout of the season. He leads the MJHL in that category. He lowered his Goals Against Average to 1.99 and brought up his Save Percentage to .929, the best numbers for any goalie in the league that has played more then 13 games.

The power play fizzled finishing 0-9 but the penalty kill units were perfect again finishing 6-6. Shots on goal were 42-31 for the Pistons.

It'll be a tough stretch here for Steinbach as they start a 5 game road trip in Winkler on Tuesday. It's the makeup game that was snowed out back on December 7th. That'll start a strech of 7 games in 12 days including two back to backs.

Next Pistons broadcast will be Saturday night in Virden. Pre game show is at 7:15pm and puck drops at 7:30 on Mix 96 and SteinbachOnline.com