Neepawa Natives begin exhibition schedule

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Published on Tuesday, September 15, 2015

By Eoin Devereux 

The Neepawa Press

The exhibition schedule is underway for the Neepawa Natives.

The Manitoba Junior Hockey League club hit the ice on Tuesday, Sept 9th, at the Yellowhead Centre, dropping a 3-1 decision to the Waywayseecappo Wolverines.

The matchup featured just the rookies and young prospects for the Natives in the lineup. In the early portion of the game, Wayway was able to control the tempo, as the rookies for the Natives appeared a bit apprehensive in the opening frame. That potential opening night nervousness translated to the Natives being outshot 20-8 in the first 20 minutes. 

Despite spending most of the first period on their heels, Neepawa went into the first intermission tied with the Wolverines 1-1. With just under seven minutes remaining in the first, the Wolverines opened up the scoring with a Brett Opperman goal. Wade Johannesson and Chad Kilmnik assisted on the play. Three minutes later, the Neepawa Natives countered with a power-play goal to tie the game. Nathan Hillis scored with Matt Millan and Ryan Heino registering the assists.

Early in the second period, the Natives young prospects found their confidence and began to get more aggressive, putting pressure on the Wolverines and challenging their goaltender. Unfortunately, it would be Waywayseecappo who would be first to take advantage of their opportunities, scoring two goals within a minute of one another. Riley Chambray posted a goal 5:27 into the second, followed 56 seconds later by Wade Johannesson notching his second point of the evening, to make it 3-1. Neepawa would outshoot the Wolverines 13-10 in the second, but was down by a pair of goals after 40 minutes of play. 

In the third, both teams remained aggressive but could not find the back of the net. Neepawa outshot Wayway 12-11, but ended the evening out-chanced by the Wolverines by a 41-33 shot margin.

The second game of the pre-season would see Neepawa travel to Dauphin to take on the Kings on Friday, Sept. 11th. In that game, Kirklan Lycar scored a hat trick for the Kings, leading them to a commanding 5-1 win. 

Lycar opened the scoring with about six minutes remaining in the first period, with assists from Drake Bodie and Brandon Zajicek. Just over a minute later, Graeme Hore made it 2-0, with Shaq Houle picking up the only assist.

Just 35 seconds into the second period, Lycar netted his second of the night. Drake Bodie garnered the only assist. Ste. Rose product Bradley Marshall would put Neepawa on the scoreboard at 9:21 of the middle frame to make it 3-1, but Dauphin regained its three goal advantage at 14:52, with a goal from Tyler Garrioch. In the third period, Lycar completed the hat trick to make the final score 5-1 for Dauphin.

Connor Shaw would collect the win in net for the Kings, making 22 saves on the evening. Natives goaltender Troy Pierce found himself much busier than his counterpart, facing 53 shots during the game and stopping 47. The Kings would go 0-5 on the power play for the night, while the Natives were 0-4.

On Saturday, Sept. 12th, the Neepawa Natives would once again face the Dauphin Kings, this time however, it would be in the friendly confines of the Yellowhead Centre.

In this third game of their exhibition schedule, the Natives picked up their first win, doing so in dramatic fashion by topping the Kings in a shootout 3-2. 

The game was a much more even affair compared to the previous night, with Dauphin outshooting Neepawa 40-35 through the three periods and overtime.  

The complete scoring and penalty summary from the game was not available before the Neepawa Press printing deadline.