Steelers beat Natives in OT

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Steelers beat Natives in OT

Details: Published on Friday, November 10, 2017

By Eoin Devereux

Neepawa Banner & Press

While the Neepawa Natives continue to accumulate points in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League standings, the teams they’re trying to catch are doing the same, but at a much quicker pace. One of those teams, the Selkirk Steelers, recently did just that at Neepawa’s expense, with a 5-4 win in overtime.

The game was played at the Yellowhead Centre in Neepawa on Wednesday, Nov. 8. The Natives were coming off a 4-3 overtime win in Dauphin the previous evening, while the Steelers were one night removed from a 3-2 victory over Winkler.

The night’s scoring began at the mid-point of the first period, as Brett Namaka put one away for Neepawa at the 9:56 mark. Selkirk responded with a quick pair to give the Steelers the 2-1 advantage. Before the end of the first, however, Nolan Richards replied, to make it 2-2 at the end of the opening period.

While Selkirk would reclaim the lead in the second, Neepawa bounced back early in the third with a pair of goals of their own. First, Namaka put away his second of the night at 2:13. Then Justin Metcalf would add to his stats, with his tenth goal and 27th point of the year. Now trailing by a goal, the Selkirk Steelers picked up their intensity and started pushing the pace of the game. That quickly lead to the tying goal, and several other opportunities. If not for a few clutch stops from goaltender Evan Robert, it would be Selkirk’s win in regulation. The Natives would hold on, however and send the game into overtime.

Selkirk was able to take advantage just 90 seconds into the five minute OT session, as Nate Halvorsen putting away the game winner. Landon Poiron picked up the win for the Steelers, with a 28 save performance. Robert, meanwhile made 29 stops in the Natives’ net.

The win provided Selkirk (12-6-1) with another two points in the overall standings, for a total of 25 points. Neepawa (9-9-2) ended up with just one point, giving them 20 points in total on the season.