The Winkler Flyers dropped game one of their best-of-seven playoff series against the Niverville Nighthawks Saturday night.
The two teams ended the first period tied at 2-2, with Winkler’s Ethan MacTavish following up Niverville’s opening goal with one of his own just 20 seconds later, and Owen Wallace scoring in the 12th minute to again take away the Nighthawks’ one-goal lead.
That was all she wrote for Winkler when it came to scoring, though, (aside from a disqualified goal judged to have been knocked in by a hand) while Niverville got three past the Flyers’ defensive lines in the second and three more in the third to take it 8-2.
Liam Ernst took the loss in net for Winkler, making 23 saves as the Nighthawks outshot the Flyers 31-29.
Winkler had a chance to tie the series up Monday night at home. Results were not available at press time.
Game three is in Niverville Wednesday followed by game four back in Winkler Friday and game five in Niverville Sunday. Game six, if needed, will be in Winkler Tuesday, March 31.
Head coach and general manager Matthew Melo said heading into the weekend that the team was feeling pretty confident about the task ahead of them.
“This is the best time of the year,” he said of the playoffs, noting last week’s prep strategy was simply to hold course on what’s been working for the team. “It’s probably a little bit cliché, but really it’s just doing the same, focusing on ourselves and on trying to polish our game and just get game ready so that we’re executing at our full potential.”
That potential saw the Flyers close out the regular season in fourth place with a 34-30-2-2 record and 72 points, trailing Niverville in first (103 points), Steinbach in second (96), and Portage in third (79 points).
“I think there were a lot of ups and downs,” Melo said of the season as a whole. “We had a really rough start, a slower start, and lost more games than I thought we were going to early on.”
But it’s this time of year that ultimately truly counts, he observed.
“We want to win championships, not regular season banners,” Melo stressed. “I’ve been really pleased with our second half. It’s maybe seven games we’ve lost in the second half; we’ve had a very strong run.
“It feels like we’re getting better and better as we go here, and peaking towards the right time of the year.”
Still, Melo acknowledges the Nighthawks aren’t going to be an easy team to topple, but he’s feeling good about the Flyers’ chances.
“There’s definitely belief in our group that we can beat this team in a playoff series,” he said. “They’re a very good team. They only lost six games all year in regulation, so we understand what we’re up against. But we played them very well, especially of late.”
In the eight times the two teams played one another, Niverville came out of it with seven wins, but rarely more than by a goal or two.
“We beat them in Winkler 7-5 the second-last time we played them, and then we lost in overtime when we played them in the second game we played in the new Centennial Arena, and we really liked how we played that game,” Melo noted of the close 4-3 loss a few weeks ago. “So we’re feeling good. We’re going to have to play really well—that’s what it’s going to take for us—but we definitely have a belief that we can beat this team.”
There’s was a buzz of excitement in the locker room heading into this weekend’s game one, Melo shared.
“There’s that anxious anticipation, but I think there’s a confidence and a belief in our group too, which has been really cool to see,” he said. “Mostly I would say we’re just really ready to get rocking here.”
