Tenacious Twisters force Game 7 in MMJHL final

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/04/2019 (2597 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Pembina Valley Twisters used desperation to their advantage Sunday afternoon at St. James Civic Centre.

After suffering back-to-back defeats to the St. James Jr. Canucks to lose their grip on the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League championship series, the Twisters rebounded with a convincing 5-1 victory to force a seventh and deciding game.

The clincher is set for Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Morris Multiplex Arena.

Jeremie Goderis scored a pair of goals — his eighth and ninth of the playoffs — in the third period to lead the Twisters, who evened the series 3-3. His first of the game was generated just 24 seconds into the period to give Pembina Valley a 3-1 lead.

The win came just 15 hours after the Canucks posted a 4-3 triumph in Game 5 in Morris on Saturday night to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Pembina Valley had no time to be discouraged, the team’s bench boss said.

“We knew our backs were against the wall and we had to come out here and execute our game plan to a T,” Twisters’ coach Ryan Dyck said.

“Back in Game 5, we had a couple of letdowns and it ended up in the back of our net. Today, everyone laid everything on the line. We had a shark attitude, we weren’t going to let anything go and there was a second effort on every single puck.”

Travis Penner, Nico Vigier and T.J. Matuszewski also scored for Pembina Valley.

Canucks captain Wyatt Kemball gave St. James a 1-0 lead at 16:14 of the first period, but Penner tied it just over a minute later and the teams were knotted 1-1 after 20 minutes.

“They definitely showed some urgency,” Canucks coach Blair Mooney said. “Now it all comes down to one game. If you told us at the beginning of the year that would be the situation, we’d take it with this group.”

Vigier’s redirection of a point shot by Jordan Blatz midway through the second proved to be the game-winning tally. But Goderis’ quick strike in the third period was the knockout punch.

“That (early goal) pumped everyone up. Everyone just stepped even more on the gas and everything went better for us,” Sven Schefer, 18, from Winkler, said.

Goderis and his old buddy, Braeden Beernaerts, have been the Twisters’ offensive drivers all season long and stepped up again when it mattered most in Game 6.

“It didn’t start out as a goal-scoring attempt. We just dumped it in, we worked hard, my linemate worked hard for the puck and set me up really nice,” said Goderis, a 20-year-old from Swan Lake.

“I know Braeden would go hard for the puck, he always does. We’ve played together since we were six years old, so we kind of find each other on the ice. He knew I’d be sliding back door and he just hit me with the pass. I didn’t even have to call for it.”

He ripped his second of the game past Canucks goalie Nathan Cvar about 10 minutes later on a fine individual effort.

Cvar finishes with 26 stops, while Pembina Valley goalie Travis Klassen made 20 saves in the Twisters net.

The Twisters did a tremendous job of keeping the Canucks’ quality chances to a minimum.

“We kept everything to the outside except the one (Kemball) goal, which was lost coverage. Other than that, we did what we’ve done most of the playoffs. I felt we were really strong in our own end, getting pucks up to the wall and making sure we were keeping their tops guys to the outside,” Dyck said.

The Twisters last captured a league title during the 2012-13 season, while the Canucks haven’t hoisted the Jack McKenzie Trophy in 21 years.

“It’s on our players’ minds. They know it’d be pretty special,” Mooney said. “As much as we’d like to do it for the community, we’re focused on our group and how hard they’ve worked all year. They deserve it.

“We had an opportunity and didn’t cash in on it, but we have another opportunity on Tuesday night. We’re not looking at it as something that got away from us but another great opportunity right in front of us.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell