The Waywayseecappo Wolverines surrendered three unanswered goals on their way to a 5-2 loss to the Virden Oil Capitals on Tuesday night in Waywayseecappo.
In the first period, these two clubs picked up where they left off in their last meeting with no shortage of scoring.
Josh Belcher opened the scoring at 6:42 of the period to give the Oil Caps’ an early 1-0 lead.
On the man-advantage less than two minutes later, Anthony Bilka knotted the game at 1-1 with his powerplay marker.
Reagan Rabbit and Nick Doyle picked up the assists on the scoring play. With the assist, Nick Doyle notched his 100th career MJHL point.
With 4:38 to play, Josh Belcher once again gave Virden the lead with his second of the night.
Just like they did the first time, the Wolverines would find success on the powerplay.
Conrad Phillips would blast home his 23rd of the season on the one-timer to tie the game up at 2-2 with 2:14 to play in the period. Alex Lucken and Jaymes Knee drew the assists on the powerplay goal.
In the second period, the Wolverines would be forced to kill off a pair of Oil Capitals powerplays.
A couple of minutes after both teams went back to 5-on-5, Hunter Andrew would come down the wing and beat Colin Ahern low glove side to give Virden a 3-2 lead.
The Wolverines would start the third period on a powerplay for 1:33 after a late call on Virden but couldn’t get anything going.
About five minutes later, the Wolverines would get a 5-on-3 for 18 seconds. Just after the first penalty expired, Jaxon Heeney sprung out of the box and beat Ahern to give the Oil Caps’ the 4-2 lead with the shorthanded marker.
The Wolverines couldn’t quite get much going on the rest of their man-advantage and would battle for the rest of the period to get back in the game.
After pulling Ahern for the extra attacker, Kolten Kanaski would score on the empty net to seal the 5-2 Virden win.
Now 25-20-4-2 on the season, the Wolverines will have six days off between games before they return to action on Tuesday, February 11 when they host the Neepawa Natives.
After Tuesday’s loss, the Wolverines and Oil Capitals sit tied in fifth with 56 points while Virden holds one game in hand.