The Waywayseecappo Wolverines will try and book their ticket to the MJHL postseason on Friday night when the club travels to Virden to take on the Oil Capitals.
After a pair of tough losses to the Swan Valley Stampeders, the Wolverines showed their stuff on Wednesday night and bounced back against the Dauphin Kings in a 6-3 decision.
Six points ahead of the Winkler Flyers with a game in hand has the playoffs within reach for the Wolverines when the team takes on the Oil Capitals on Friday night.
The Run Down
The month of February has been kind to the Wolverines as the club has gone 7-2-1 down an important stretch in the regular season.
Meanwhile, in Virden, the Oil Capitals have gone 5-5-0-0 in the month of February to hold down fourth in the league with 68 points.
While the Wolverines are coming off a 6-3 win over the Kings, the Oil Capitals are fresh off a 4-2 loss to the Winnipeg Blues on Thursday night in a game that Jeremy Link stopped 38 of 40 Oil Caps’ shots.
It’s been quite some time since the Wolverines and Oil Capitals met. After squaring off in three straight games in the first month of the season, the two teams wouldn’t meet again until January 3 when the Oil Capitals took a 3-2 win on home ice.
Now 2-1-1-0 in the season series, the Wolverines will look to get the upper hand before the two clubs will meet again one last time to close out the season on March 3.
Keys to the Game
In their previous meeting, the Wolverines got off to a slow start on the road which ultimately sank the club in a 3-2 loss. Waywayseecappo will need to do what they’ve been doing best as of late and that’s using their speed and tenacity on the puck to get off to a good start.
It will be the leagues second best powerplay in Virden (22.6%) going up against the Wolverines penalty kill (85.2%) which has the club third in the league.
Slowing down the Oil Caps’ trio of Kolten Kanaski, Ben Dalke and Blake Sidoni will be instrumental in the Wolverines shutting down Virden’s attack.
News and Notes
A Wolverines win gets the team into the playoffs on Friday night while a Flyers loss would also do the trick.
Waywayseecappo leads the MJHL in shorhanded goals this season with a total of ten after Preston Seymour added to that number against Dauphin on Wednesday.
Jake Bestul continues to score at over a point per game pace over the last eight games notching three goals and eight assists. Another Wolverines veteran has stepped up and taken charge over the last 21 games. In that time, Brandon Lawson has scored eight goals and nine assists.
It will be seventeen straight starts for Isaac LaBelle when he takes the crease on Friday night in Virden as it’s been a tremendous stretch of hockey for the veteran goaltender.
Game Updates
You can watch tonights game on hockeytv.com or follow along on social media…
mjhl_Wolverines – Twitter
Wayway Wolverines – Facebook
Instagram – wolverines_mjhl