Martin, Lenz lead Pistons in win over Blues

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This article was published 18/12/2018 (1955 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brendan Martin has been money in the bank for the Steinbach Pistons this year.

The leading scorer for the Pistons, Martin scored his 23rd goal of the season with only five minutes remaining Tuesday night at Bell MTS Iceplex to give the Pistons a thrilling 1-0 victory over the Winnipeg Blues.

Martin, who scored last night’s winner while playing 4-on-4, is second overall in goals scored in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.

And while Matt Radomsky was back at the Pistons bench getting a day of rest after backstopping Team Canada West to a 3-1 bronze medal victory over the Czech Republic Sunday in a 46-save performance at the World Junior ‘A’ Challenge in Alberta, Matt Lenz received his seventh straight start in net for the Pistons while Radomsky was away.

Lenz, who has been superb in net in this month of December, was again at his best last night as he posted the shutout in a brilliant 27-save performance in his second shutout of the season as he ran his record to 8-2-2 this year.

Lenz is second in the league with a 2.18 goals against average, behind only Radomsky at 2.11. Both Pistons goaltenders also have a .924 save percentage, second only to the .927 owned by Jeremy Link of the Blues, who Lenz faced at the Iceplex last night.

These same two teams will go at it again at the Iceplex at 7:00 p.m. on Friday and then the Pistons will return home to host the Selkirk Steelers Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the T.G. Smith Centre. The Steelers beat the Virden Oil Capitals 4-3 in overtime on Tuesday.

The Pistons, third in the standings with a 23-10-2-0 record, trail the second place Swan Valley Stampeders by three points. The Steelers are in fourth, five points back of the Pistons. The Blues fell to 15-15-2-4.