It was a rough weekend for the Winkler Flyers as they dropped a pair of games to the Niverville Nighthawks.
Playing in Niverville Friday night, the Hawks doubled up on the Flyers 4-2 in a night that saw the home team outshoot their opponents 46-19.
Jacob Michelson and Liam Carlone got Winkler on the board in the back end of the second period, and goalie Leif Ekblad made 42 saves in net.
It was a much closer affair two nights later on Winkler’s home turf.
While the Nighthawks won the shots battle once again (34-22), the two teams were matching each other goal for goal throughout regulation.
William Lyons drew first blood early, in the second minute, but then Niverville tied it up not long after.
Period two saw Winkler retake the lead 33 seconds in thanks to a goal from Connor Rieger, only for the Nighthawks to tie it up and pull ahead 3-2 by the midpoint. Less than a minute later, Rieger’s second of the night tied the game at 3-3. A late Nighthawk goal sent the game into the final frame with the visitors up 4-3.
Carlone scored the tying goal 10 minutes in to force overtime, where Niverville managed the game-winner to take it 5-4.
Ekblad stood tall in net with 29 saves.
With that, the Flyers are 1-4-1 in these first few weeks of the season, good for three points and fifth place in the MJHL’s East Division, trailing Selkirk, Steinbach, Niverville, and Portage, though with a game or two in hand.
This week the Flyers hosted the Winnipeg Monarchs on Tuesday. Results were not available at press time.
Over the holiday weekend they welcome the Steelers to town on Sunday. Puck drops at 7:30 p.m.
