After a 4-1 win back on February 8 against Medicine Hat, the Winnipeg ICE prepared themselves for a four-game road trip, finishing with three extremely tough opponents. To begin the trip, the ICE made their way to Swift Current to play a young and inexperienced Broncos squad.
That inexperience from Swift Current showed on Wednesday as the ICE hammered the Broncos 8-3.
“We had a bit of a slow start, but once we got our legs under us, it was a good game,” said captain Peyton Krebs after the game courtesy of winnipegice.ca. “It was definitely a great start to the trip for us.”
Nolan Orzeck potted his fourth goal of the season 14:04 into the contest, as the ICE took a 1-0 lead. However, Swift Current bounced right back. Just 2:21 later, Jaxan Kaluski netted his 18th of the season to tie it up. The game didn’t stay tied for long as Owen Pederson gave Winnipeg a 2-1 lead with just 1:21 left in the frame, a lead they held into the second period.
In the second, there were five goals, three of which Winnipeg scored consecutively. Isaac Johnson gave Winnipeg a 3-1 lead less than two minutes into the frame. Pederson then notched his second of the game as the ICE took a 4-1 lead, less than 10 minutes into the second.
While on a man advantage, Winnipeg kept coming. Benjamin Zloty lit up the twine with his fourth of the season at the 12:06 mark.
Down 5-1, Swift Current started a comeback. Matthew Benson and Hayden Ostir scored goals less than two minutes apart as the deficit was cut to 5-3.
That’s as close as Swift Current could get. James Form, Michal Teply, and Cole Muir scored third-period goals as Winnipeg increased the lead to 8-3. In the end, that was the final score.
“It was really good to get the two points tonight. I talked to the team before and told them it’s going to take a full four lines to win this and we had that at times,” said head coach James Patrick. “I wasn’t really happy with the start, but we did some good things as the game moved on.”
The win moved Winnipeg to the top spot in the East Division as they’re now 32-19-1. Swift Current, meanwhile, dropped to 10-37-1-3.
Winnipeg is now off to Lethbridge to play the ‘Canes on Friday and Saturday. The ICE wrap up the trip on Monday in Medicine Hat. Heading into that series, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat have a combined record of 67-28-4-6.
ICINGS:
- Peyton Krebs and Dawson Barteaux both had four assists to lead Winnipeg.
- Owen Pederson had two goals and one assist.
- In net, Liam Hughes turned away 19 of the 22 shots he faced.
