The Winkler Flyers dropped a 9-2 decision in Selkirk on Tuesday night in their second last game of the season. Winkler native Malachi Klassen made his first Manitoba Junior Hockey League start for the Flyers and battled hard for the full 60 minutes.

Entering their final week of the season, the Flyers travelled to Selkirk with five regulars out of the line-up and turned to 15 year old Malachi Klassen in goal, giving Riley Morgan a night off after starting 16 of Winkler’s last 17 games.

The Steelers scored a pair of goals in the first 11 minutes of the opening period before Cayden Meyer sent a shot in from the point to cut the Steelers’ lead to 2-1 with 8:11 left in the period. Jayden McCarthy and Collin Caulfield assisted on Meyer’s third of the season. The Steelers regained their two goal lead later in the period and the Flyers trailed 3-1 after 20 minutes.

Not even a minute after the Steelers scored to make it 4-1, Jesse Korytko finished off a nice passing play which included Josh Kagan and Eric Fawkes and Korytko had his 15th of the year and Winkler was back within two. However, Selkirk got that one back later in the period and would go on to score four more times in the third to put the game away.

Klassen made 34 stops in his first start as the Steelers outshot the Flyers 43-23. Central Plains Capitals forward Marcus Dewey also made his Winkler debut and played extremely well.

The Flyers will travel to Portage on Saturday night for their final game of the 2018-2019 season. You can catch the game live with Matt Friesen on Country 88 and www.pembinavalleyonline.com beginning with the pregame show at 7:25pm. Puck drop at Stride Place and on www.hockeytv.com goes at 7:30pm.

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