Troy Martyniuk stopped all 26 shots he faced as the Winkler Flyers blanked the visiting Thief River Falls Norskies 5-0 on Friday night. The line of Coltyn Bates, Matt Christian and Micah Anderson accounted for eight points combined to help the Orange and Black capture their second straight win of the pre-season.After beating the Winnipeg Blues in their exhibition debut on Tuesday night, the Flyers welcomed the SIJHL’s Norskies for the first game of the second annual Goose Cup. Last season, the Flyers and Norskies faced off in the two game exhibition series, with Winkler winning the two games by a combined score of 15-1.

It was a good first period for the Flyers as they took the game to Thief River Falls early on. With just over six minutes left before intermission, Will Blake finished off a nice cross crease pass from Nolan McGuire and the Flyers had a 1-0 lead.

Winkler came on strong in the middle frame and added to their lead with two more goals. The first came from Matt Christian, who scored on the power-play just 43 seconds in. Not even five minutes later, Christian assisted on Micah Anderson’s goal in increase Winkler’s lead to 3-0. After outshooting their opponent 19-6 in the period, the Flyers carried their three goal lead into the final frame.

The Flyers put the game to bed in the third, and it started when Christian earned his third point of the night on Coltyn Bates’ goal before the period was six minutes old. Winkler would add one more before the end, and it came off the stick of Garrett Kuklica as he found the back of the net with just over four minutes left in regulation.

Troy Martyniuk stopped all 26 shots he faced as the Flyers would outshoot the Norskies 56-26. Winkler went 2-for-5 on the power-play and 4-for-4 on the penalty-kill.

Winkler will travel to Thief River Falls, Minnesota on Saturday night for the second game of the two game Goose Cup Series. Game time is 7:30pm.

GREAT CANADIAN OIL CHANGE THREE STARS
1ST STAR – MATT CHRISTIAN (WINKLER)
2ND STAR – COLTYN BATES (WINKLER)
3RD STAR – BROCK LAFABVRE (THIEF RIVER FALLS)

GAME STATS