Oil Caps on a roll heading into MJHL final

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This article was published 21/04/2023 (869 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Virden Oil Capitals were three games under .500, out of a playoff spot and fading fast after getting drubbed 7-3 by the Selkirk Steelers on Dec. 17.

The next day Virden started a 19-day holiday break. In hindsight, it’s hard to imagine a schedule timeout being more perfectly timed.

After some R&R, the lowly Caps emerged from their early season funk to win nine of 10 games in January, including a sweep of a home-and-home series with the Steinbach Pistons, en route to a 21-6-0-0 regular-season record in the second half.

A 35-22-1-0 overall mark was good for third place in the West Division.

“I’d say that Christmas break came at a perfect time for us,” said 17-year-old Virden centre Nolan Chastko, who leads his team in playoff scoring with nine goals and 16 points in 13 games. “We were in the basement in our division and had just come off of a big loss to Selkirk.

“Those couple of weeks there were a big refresh for all of us and as we got closer to getting back to playing games, I think all of us were really excited but also knew that we would have to put in a lot of work to get back into a playoff spot.”

In the post-season, the fourth-seeded Caps continued to cut a swath through the league, dispatching the OCN Blizzard and then the top-seeded Portage Terriers in a monumental seven-game semifinal decided in double overtime Wednesday.

On Saturday, Virden travels to Steinbach for Game 1 of the league final to make only its second appearance in the league championship since the Winnipeg Saints franchise relocated to western Manitoba in 2012.

“They’ve earned their way here,” said Pistons GM and head coach Paul Dyck. “I mean, they’ve been the best team for four months. I think everybody’s talking about a surprise. Well, to me, it’s not a surprise… They’ve won more games than anybody since Christmas and that’s a long period of time. We’re not talking about two weeks.”

In the 2017-18 final, the Caps were beaten 4-2 by Steinbach. Its hardly far-fetched to believe Virden can win it all this season and earn a berth in the Centennial Cup national junior A championship, slated for May 11-21 in Portage la Prairie.

“We’ve been playing basically playoff hockey ever since the new year,” said Chastko, who came to the club in September after spending training camp with the WHL’s Prince George Cougars. “And so we’ve had nothing but confidence in our group and obviously beating a team like Portage has given us a lot more. And so going into Steinbach, I know I speak for all of us when I say we’re super excited to get started.”

Dyck saw a transformed Virden team in the second half, buttressed nicely by the goaltending duo of Owen LaRocque and Eric Reid.

“After Christmas I saw a different compete level and they were growing in confidence and saw some really good development taking place,” said Dyck.

Steinbach is also quite capable of regaining the league title after losing the final to the Dauphin Kings last spring.

“They have a really well-balanced team,” said Virden GM and head coach Tyson Ramsey of the Pistons. “They’re physical, they can score, their defence as a group is good and they generate offence from the back end. (Goaltender) Dominik Wasik has played the most — but both goaltenders are solid. So, it’s a good team from top to bottom and they obviously understand how to play in their rink.”

A key contributor for the Pistons has been defenceman Warren Clark, a towering 18-year-old from Riverside, Ont., acquired in the off-season from the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s Brooks Bandits in exchange for another star blue-liner, Sam Court.

“It was one of those trades where both teams got a quality player,” said Dyck. “I think both guys are on the NHL watch list. Sometimes it’s just about opportunity and as soon as Clarkie came here, we were looking for somebody to quarterback one of the power plays and he’s done that really well.”

With Clark’s help, the Pistons were a changed team in the second half after blowing out opponents early in the regular season.

“We’ve learned to win the game in different ways,” said Dyck. “Early on, we were a team that liked to play kind of a high octane game and just flat out outscore teams. I liked this stretch there in March where we learned to win those 2-1 games and we learned to grind games out. We did that in the Winkler series and we did that in this Swan series.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca