Natives pick up wins over Blizzard, Blues; add McQueen
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- Published on Tuesday, November 12, 2013
myWestman.ca
The Neepawa Natives had a successful weekend in Manitoba Junior Hockey League action, winning both of their games.
The Natives hosted the OCN Blizzard at the Yellowhead Centre on Friday night. More than 370 people took in the action and Natives fans wound up leaving the rink happy as their favourite junior 'A' hockey club wound up coming away with a 5-3 win.
Down 3-2 after 40 minutes of play, the Natives wound up scoring three unanswered tallies in the third period en route to the victory. Steven Phillips tied the contest at the 12:27 mark of the third, while Riley Hillis -- who wound up being named the first star of the game -- would score the go-ahead marker on the power play just over three minutes later. Brayden Cuthbert scored another power play tally late in the contest to ice the game for Neepawa.
The Natives, who opened the scoring on a goal from Lyndon Soper in the first period, would surrender three consecutive goals to the Blizzard in the second from the sticks of Wilson Dumais, Darien Cardinal and Kirk Chief. Sam Briscoe would score at the 17:02 mark of the period to cut into the Blizzard lead.
Davy Fisher picked up the win in net for the Natives, stopping 30 of 33 shots, while former Natives netminder Alex Henry took the loss between the pipes for the Blizzard, setting aside 43 of 48 shots directed his way.
Lyndon Soper of the Natives wound up being named the second star of the game, while Matti Jmaeff, also of the Natives, was named the third star.
The Natives outshot the Blizzard 48-33 and were 2-for-9 on the power play.
On Sunday, the Natives travelled to Winnipeg to take on the Blues at the MTS Iceplex and were able to come away with a tightly-contested 4-3 shootout win.
Special teams were key in this contest as all six regulation goals came with the man-advantage. The Blues opened up a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Liam Kroeker and Cody Danylchuk before Sam Briscoe was able to score late in the frame for Neepawa.
Newly acquired forward Ryan McQueen scored the lone tally in the second period for Neepawa. McQueen was recently added by the Natives in a deal with Virden, which saw future considerations get shipped to the Oil Capitals.
The Blues would respond in the third period as Liam Bilton scored at the 2:50 mark to make the score 3-2 for Winnipeg before Brayden Cuthbert scored with less than five minutes to go to tie the contest.
After a scoreless overtime, Jaret Smith and Drake Lindsay scored in the shootout for Neepawa, while Jackson Keane and Warren Callis came up empty for Winnipeg.
Tyson Verhelst picked up the win in net for Neepawa, stopping 46 of 49 shots, while Scott Parsons ended up with the loss, making 17 saves in the process.
With the two wins over the weekend, Neepawa improved to 6-11-3 this season (as of Nov. 13) and are only two points behind OCN for fourth place in the Sher-Wood Division.
More on McQueen . . .
Here's a little more information on the Natives acquisition of McQueen: the 18-year-old forward from Thunder Bay, Ont. is a former member of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's Flin Flon Bombers.
He spent part of this season injured with the Bombers, playing in just two games for the club before being acquired by Virden in late October. McQueen comes from the Thunder Bay Kings AAA Midget program that competed in the Northern Lakes Hockey League.