Steinbach Pistons back in MJHL semi-finals, ready for Virden Oil Capitals

After a year away, the Steinbach Pistons are back in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League semi-finals. The Pistons bounced back after a game one loss, winning four consecutive games to advance past the Portage Terriers, the team that eliminated them last season.

The 4-1 finish may have masked a closer series, with the league’s two active leaders in all-time coaching wins bringing solid teams to the post-season. The clinching game had just one non-empty net goal scored, with captain Sam Noad popping home a goal during a four-on-three powerplay to clinch the series.

“It just gets more difficult as we move forward,” Steinbach head coach Paul Dyck said, emphasizing how hard it is to win the clinching game of a series.

“You knew (Portage) wasn’t going to go away. There’s a lot of pride in that room, they’re extremely well prepared with their coaching staff and they battled.”

Steinbach played up a single goal for six minutes of the third period in Portage in game four, with several tense shifts before Jackson Kostiuk added an insurance marker with three minutes to go.

“In the playoffs, everything is magnified,” Dyck said.

“I had an old coach that used to tell us you never know which five minutes would win or lose you a hockey game. You can break that into much smaller increment, and that’s maybe 10 seconds. You lose a guy or decide not to back check one shift, that can be the difference. We experienced the importance of every second on the ice.”

A sellout crowd of more than 2,400 people took in game five inside the Southeast Event Centre, watching the building’s main tenant skate to a series victory in the new digs for the first time.

Pistons captain Sam Noad said it was the best atmosphere in Junior A hockey in Canada after the game.

“When the building erupted on the empty netter, that was legit loud,” Dyck said.

“You can’t say enough about the fanbase, it’s been an incredible environment all year for us, but today that was electric there at the end. I know the boys really appreciated it.”

The Pistons will take on Virden in the semi-finals, the league’s top finisher in the West Division. Noad emphasized they’ll need to have better starts, both at the beginning of the series, and striking early in games.

Noad said at the Pistons banquet Steinbach is more willing to pay the price of winning this season, adding the game one loss to Portage showed them the level they needed to be at.

“After game one, our willingness to pay that price increased, and we realized what the price was going to be,” Noad said.

“We’re willing to pay the price and it’s going to get more expensive moving forward.”

Steinbach will be hosting games one and two April 3/4. Puck drop both nights is at 7 p.m.

GAME 4

Steinbach’s top three defensemen showed their worth in game four, with Liam Doyle, Rory Gilmour and Zhenya Miles all tallying for the visitors in their 5-3 win.

Doyle and Gilmour struck in the first 10 minutes, with Adam Belzil and Dylan Karran responding for Portage before the end of the period.

Evan Gradt got the forwards on the board in the second, with Miles’ third-period tally standing up as the eventual game-winner.

Miles showed great offensive instincts, beating everyone to a loose puck after a one-timer from the slot was stopped, and sniping the puck past an unstable Ryan Velan.

The Terriers drew within one on a weird goal. Edward Knittig got behind the Steinbach defense, and was hauled down by Evan Kabel, drawing a penalty. Instead, Kabel crashed into Quizi, with the puck slipping behind the line. Kostiuk’s insurance marker five minutes later gave Steinbach some insurance.

Velan became the third goaltender start a game in the playoffs for Portage in the loss, as the team rotated through all their options in search of a win. Logan Cunningham, who got the team their only win of the series in game one, returned and played well in game five.

GAME 5

Sam Noad’s powerplay marker was the only offense Steinbach could muster in game five, but that was enough, with Liam Doyle looping a puck into the empty net from centre ice for a 2-0 win and a Steinbach series victory.

Chris Quizi got starts in games on back-to-back days, stopping 65 of the 68 shots he faced over the weekend, being named the first star in both games.

Head coach Paul Dyck called Quizi the “backbone” of his team’s effort.

“It’s what we envisioned when we acquired him,” Dyck said.

“There’s gonna be nights where you’re going to bend, but you’re not going to break because of your goalie.”

Portage had a great chance to tie the game late, after Zhenya Miles took a four-minute slew-footing tripping penalty with 3:41 on the game clock.

The Pistons’ penalty kill, led by experienced players stepped up and shut down any chances of a comeback.

“Everybody understood the moment,” Dyck said.

“(In game four) we had some of that in the third period, where we just weathered it… Guys kind of relished that moment. I’d prefer we weren’t in that situation, but you could feel there was a really good energy and a lot of confidence on the bench.”

Niverville will play Wawyseecappo in the other MJHL semi-final.