The Pembina Valley Twisters continued with their winning ways with a dominating 9-2 win over the River East Royal Knights on Feb. 9. With the win, the Twisters are staying firm in second place in the MMJHL’s standings with a record of 23-9-3.
The Twisters’s Caelan Russell scored a hat trick with Ryan Orchard adding two more and Josh Guilford and Max Collet each scoring one. Goaltender Owen Larocque stopped 36 shots.
“I would say that we played as good of a game as you can in those situations,” said Pembina Valley’s coach Braeden Beernaerts. “It gets extremely hard to not develop bad habits in a blow out game. For the most part, we stuck to it and got a big win.”
Twisters’ sniper Derek Wiebe is currently third in the MMJHL’s scoring race with 60 points in 35 games, Merek Degraeve is in fifth with 55 points in 36 games and Riley Goertzen is in tenth with 46 points in 35 games. Logan Enns is currently third in the goalie rankings as he boasts a 2.91 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage.
“With the standings as close as they are, we have to be prepared that every team below us is already in playoff mode and fighting for a spot,” said Beernaerts. “We have to keep the consistency, set the pace, and play our game every night down the stretch. In hopes to have a good seating come playoff time.”
Pembina Valley forward Ryan Orchard was named the MMJHL’s Rookie of the Month after scoring seven points in seven games in January.
The Twisters are back in action with three games this week. The team will travel to Seven Oaks Sportsplex on Wednesday, Feb. 14 to take on the Raiders Jr. Hockey Club with puck drop at 8:30 p.m. The Twisters will then host the Transcona Railer Express at the Notre Dame de Lourdes Arena at 8 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 16 before travelling to Southdale Arena on Sunday, Feb. 18 to play the St. Boniface Riels with puck drop at 3 p.m.
