The Bienfait Coalers senior hockey team extended their winning streak to four games with an 8-3 trouncing of the Midale Mustangs at Bienfait Memorial Arena on Saturday.
The Coalers (4-0) were firing on all cylinders to start the contest with Chase McKersie enjoying the first quality chance to put the homeside on the board 2:30 into the game off a wraparound that Mustangs netminder Derek Tendler just got a pad on. After Bienfait's Dylan Herzberg recorded another scoring opportunity with a deke in close seven-and-a-half minutes in, Coalers defenceman Mason Benning got his team on the board at the 8:13 mark with a seeing-eye wrist shot from the point that beat Tendler high blocker side.
The Mustangs' Adam Ziegler only needed 50 seconds to tie the game firing a rebound from the slot into the top of Coalers goalie Landon Audet's net. The Coalers replied late in the first period with McKersie breaking up a Mustangs' attempt to clear the puck out of their zone before setting up Blaine Herzberg who had snuck in behind the defence.
“We want to keep the pressure up as much as we can,” said Coalers coach Joel Moriarty. “You never want to get scored on and then sit back and try to play too defensively because that's when you're going to give up another goal, so you got to just get back on the forecheck and go from there.”
The majority of the second period seemed to belong to the Mustangs (2-4) with Steven Lindenbach earning a chance in close off an extended cycle in the Coalers zone halfway through the frame, but it was Bienfait that would light the lamp first with Dylan Herzberg one-timing a Payden Benning drop pass from the hashmarks at the 13:24 mark.
Mustangs forward Brad Tomiski brought the score to 3-2 just over two minutes later by swatting in a rebound from the side of the net before Mason Benning restored the two-goal lead with a slap shot from the point while the Coalers enjoyed a power-play opportunity 16 minutes into the stanza. The Mustangs' Tyler Hoium and the Coalers' Dallas Kickley exchanged markers late in the frame to make the score 5-3 heading into the third period.
The Coalers got into penalty trouble early in the third period, but a strong kill highlighted by a McKersie steal and feed to Kickley for a short-handed marker 4:13 into the frame kept the Mustangs at bay. Payden Benning and Dylan Herzberg completed the scoring late in the third period to bring the score to 8-3.
“Our penalty kill has really been bang on all year,” said Moriarty. “Everybody up and down through the lineup has been playing the penalty kill. We have a system in place and everybody knows how to play it and it just makes coaching pretty simple.”
Moriarty said the Mustangs displayed a better effort on Saturday compared to the first time the two teams met, a 7-2 Coalers win on Nov. 4, and that shows that every game is going to get tougher as the season moves ahead. He said they're facing the Carlyle Cougars on the road this Saturday and the expectation is that will be another battle despite the expansion club's 1-3 record.
“They have some guys who have played in the league before,” he said. “We haven't seen them yet and I don't know what they're going to be like. We'll just have to bring our best effort and see what happens.”
