It is officially the best start to a season in Steinbach Pistons history after defeating the Neepawa Natives 6-1 on Saturday night, pushing their record to 7-0 opening the 2016/17 season.

It wasn't all roses as the Pistons gave up the first goal in the first minute of the first period. Nathan Hillis slipped one through the arm of Roman Bengert and gave the Natives a 1-0 in front of a stunned Steinbach crowd. Six minutes later, the Pistons evened things up as Darby Gula fired a shot from the point and hit some part of Landon Plett's body eventually finding it's way into the net. For Plett, that marker gives him 7 goals in 7 games this year. Jordan Bochinski picked up the secondary assist on the goal. The horn would sound with neither team really grabbing momentum and finishing in a 1-1 draw.

In the second, the Pistons grabbed momentum and never relinquished it. Steinbach started the period on a 5 on 3 and capitalized when Troy Williams rifled a bomb from the point that found the back of the net just 20 seconds into the period. Declan Graham and Bochinski got the assists. Then, less then a minute later, Mack Graham got on the board the hard way. After slipping the puck past the Neepawa goalie, he was cross checked from behind and was a little slow getting up. Graham was all smiles after the game. "Yeah it hurts a little less." he jokingly said post game. "I think if I didn't score that one, I was going to need to take a couple shifts off but, when you score a goal you kind of forget what happens before or after." Before the period was over, Carter Chorney (Not Charter as listed on the MJHL website) grabbed a loose puck in the Natives zone and made no mistake finding the back of the net, helping his team push the lead to 4-1.

In the third, special teams took over. Mack Graham notched his second of the game on a perfect tip-in off a Gula point shot with Mark Taraschuk picking up the extra assist while later in the period, Julien Koga stripped the Neepawa defender while on the power play and buried a break away wrister all but sealing the victory making it 6-1 Steinbach.

The penalty kill again was outstanding finishing 8-8 while the power play went 2-5. 

Roman Bengert, after letting in the first shot of the game, was flawless stopping several in tight chances and then flashing the leather on a few other occasions. Bengert finished the night with 26 saves and is now 6-0 with a Goals Against Average (GAA) of 1.50 and a Save Percentage (SV%) of .939. He's faced 147 shots and stopped 138 this year.

The Steinbach Pistons will shut down the engines for a couple days to celebrate Thanksgiving but then will crank things back up for a road date with the Winkler Flyers who have a record of 5-1 this year. The Pistons have quite the rivalry with the Flyers and it grew after eliminating Winker in the playoffs last year, even after the Flyers had a 3-1 series lead.