After dropping four straight games, the Waywayseecappo Wolverines got back into the win column with a solid 5-1 road victory over the Neepawa Natives on Wednesday night.
Newly acquired forward Jaymes Knee opened the scoring at 15:51 on a beautiful 2 on 0 passing play with Riley Vautour when Knee took a pass in tight and beat Natives goaltender Brendan Benoit upstairs to put the Wolverines in front 1-0.
The Wolverines kicked off the second period with a bang when Conrad Phillips found Greg Lee who gave the Wolverines a 2-0 lead on his second of the year just 50 seconds into the frame.
Despite having three powerplay chances in the second, the Wolverines were unable to connect on the man-advantage.
Late in the period, Conrad Phillips would extend the Wolverines lead to three when he tipped in a Brady Pupp point shot that would beat Benoit through the wickets. Along with Pupp, Michael Heitkamp would get a helper on the scoring play.
Neepawa would cut into the Wolverines lead late in the second period when Brad Marshall beat Isaac LaBelle on the powerplay from Gibbons and Belinski.
Although the Wolverines outshot the Natives 18-10 after two, Neepawa evened up the shot clock by the 14-minute mark of the third period at 19-19.
The Wolverines would press back and get their first powerplay goal of the game when Jack Kennedy ripped a slapshot from the point to give the club a 4-1 lead. Morgan Poirier and Trygve Many Guns connected for the assists.
With under three minutes to go in the third, Conrad Phillips squeaked one by Benoit to get his second of the game and third point on the night. Anthony Bilka picked up his first assist as a Wolverine on the goal, while Greg Lee notched his second assist of the night.
Bouncing back from four straight losses, the Wolverines would pull away with a 5-1 victory at the buzzer, improving to 8-6-1.
Both the Wolverines and Natives went 1 for 7 on the powerplay, with Waywayseecappo registering their first man-advantage goal in their last 23 attempts. Isaac LaBelle was solid once again for the Wolverines stopping all but one Natives shot on net to pick up his eighth win of the season.
The Wolverines eighth victory of the season on Wednesday night matches the 2017-18 Wolverines regular season win total just 15 games into this season.
Next up for Waywayseecappo is a busy home schedule on the weekend, as both Winkler and Portage make stops on Saturday and Sunday night.