The 3rd and 4th best teams in the MJHL will be facing off this weekend, with the first game at the Waywayseecappo Arena, but in front of no fans.
The red-hot Winkler Flyers come to Waywayseecappo winning five straight, including beating the West Division leaders Dauphin Kings twice in a weekend sweep.
Meanwhile, the Wolverines will be coming off a loss to the Steinbach Pistons 6-3 on Sunday to start off 2022.
The Flyers will be coming into town with two of the top five league leaders in scoring with Justin Svenson and Jayden McCarthy with 47 and 45 points respectively. Winkler also has a high scoring defencemen, Trent Sambrook, with 35 points on the year.
The Wolverines are more balanced, with defencemen Lonan Bulger leading the way for the team with 35 points. Boston Bird leads forwards with 27 points. Six players have at least 20 points on the team.
With the trade deadline back on Monday, both teams will be playing with recently added players. For the Wolverines, Eric Krywy and Max Mazur started for their new team last Sunday. Joey Moffatt and Brett Mirwald will be in the building for Friday night.
For the Flyers, they acquired former Wolverines Troy Hamilton and Nick Dobson from the Weyburn Red Wings. They also picked up Kaden Stewart from Selkirk.
The two teams are separated by two points coming into the contest, and even though the two teams are in different divisions, the overall standings matter for playoff seeding in the playoffs, something that could end up in play for the two teams at the end of the season.
The Flyers are two points up on the Winnipeg Blues for the second spot in the East Division entering Friday’s game.
Special teams might end up mattering a lot as well, as both teams are in the top 3 in the league for penalty minutes.
Records:
Waywayseecappo Wolverines: 20-9-2, 42 Points, 2nd in West, 3rd in MJHL
Winkler Flyers: 19-11-2, 40 Points, 2nd in East, 4th in MJHL
Leading Scorers:
Waywayseecappo Wolverines: Lonan Bulger (8-27-35 points)
Winkler Flyers: Justin Svenson (20-27-47 points)
Top Goalies:
Waywayseecappo Wolverines: Liam Tereposky (15-7-2, .876, 3.53)
Winkler Flyers: Dylan Meilun (14-8-1, .892, 3.17)
Special Teams:
Waywayseecappo Wolverines: PP – 26.3% (2nd); PK – 73.5% (10th)
Winkler Flyers: PP – 25.7% (3rd); PK – 88.8% (1st)