Neepawa ends MJHL season with win

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Published on Tuesday, March 8, 2016

By Eoin Devereux

The Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

The Neepawa Natives concluded the 2015-2016 Manitoba Junior Hockey League season on a positive note, defeating the Winkler Flyers 5-4 in a shootout.

The final home game of the year, held on Friday, Mar. 4, started off extremely well for Neepawa, as they opened the scoring just under five minutes into the game and then doubled their lead before the end of the period. Kyle McDonald and Jordan Martin notched the goals for the home side. 

The start to the second period continued the positives of the first for Neepawa, as they would add two more before the midway point. Patrick Carlin scored 4:16 into the middle frame, while Ashton Anderson added another with just over nine minute left in the second. At that point, it appeared that Neepawa had things well under control. Winkler, however, would not give up that easily. 

Now trailing by four, the Flyers comeback effort began with 7:25 left in the second, when Coltyn Bates scored on the power-play. Winkler scored again just over four minutes into the period. Once again, it was on the power-play. The Flyers continued to attack and with just minutes left in regulation, Scott Gall scored twice in a span of a minute and two-seconds to tie the game 4-4 and send it into overtime. During the five minutes of extra time, the Flyers pelted the Neepawa net with shots, looking to make the comeback complete. Goaltender Jeremy Link however, as he has done all season, figuratively stood on his head to keep the puck out of the back of the net.

This game would go into a shootout, where Brayden Atkinson scored the only goal of for either side and ave Neepawa the 5-4 victory in their last game of the season.

During the game, Winkler outshot Neepawa 45-35 overall. The Natives were 0-for-1 on the power-play, while the Flyers went 2-for-5 with the man advantage. Neepawa ended its season with a record of 13-45-2, good enough for 28 points on the season.