Eastman Selects avoid disastrous loss in playoff race

It wasn’t a game head coach Bruce Sirrell was all that happy with, but the Eastman Selects managed a last-second 7-6 victory over the last-place Yellowhead Chiefs to keep pace in the Manitoba AAA U18 league.

The Selects are battling to stay as high as possible in the standings. Despite being in fifth place exiting the week’s action, are just one point ahead of the Winnipeg Thrashers. Ninth-place Pembina Valley are just six points behind as well, with games in hand to play.

“We didn’t have any energy,” Sirrell said after the game, noting Yellowhead was dominating in transition in the first period.

“That’s hockey. You just stay with the process… It’s a good character win. It wasn’t a textbook good game, but it’s one of those games that you look back and say ‘you lose that it would really sink us.’”

Only eight teams in the 13-team loop will make the playoffs, which start after the regular season ends in late-February.

“We really feel like we’re in it with everyone else,” Sirrell said, adding the team has had some success against top teams in the league.

“We’ve got to play better, we’ve got to be a little bit more consistent. Like I said, we were disgusted by our start (tonight). We just didn’t show up.”

The Selects had to pull starting goaltender Samuel Fontaine after the Chiefs took a 5-2 second period lead. Backup Myuatt Minsky was able to step in, and with an improved effort from players in front of him, pick up the win.

Sirrell praised the entire team for staying positive despite the score, including Fontaine.

“It wasn’t that long ago (Fontaine) stole one for us when we played the (third-place) Bruins,” he said.

“He’s been a big part and had a good attitude on the bench, he did a really good job.”

Two goals from Lorette’s Daniel De Gagne helped erase that 5-2 deficit, only for Yellowhead’s Winston Lepp to give the visitors a 6-5 lead mid-way through the third.

From there, it was the Noah Stott show. The Steinbach forward potted two goals in the final minutes to give the Selects a memorable victory.

A careless Brody Bohemier interference penalty with 30 seconds to go in the game set up heroics from a likely source. Dominion City’s Kasen Mateychuk, the Selects’ star defenseman, captain and brother to NHL defenseman Denton, set up Stott with an incredible solo effort.

With under 15 seconds left in the game, he blitzed into the offensive zone, cutting through the slot and avoiding all Yellowhead would-be defenders before circling around the net and placing the puck right on Stott’s stick in the slot, who one-timed the chance home.

Mateychuk leads the league in points per game by a defenseman, with 27 in just 24 games. An early-season surgery has kept him from leading the league in overall points, but since his return, Mateychuk has been dynamic.

“When he gets into those situations, he’s a tough check because of his size, he’s got some good offensive vision,” Sirrell said.

“He makes a real impact on the game.”

The Selects are on the road in Souris to take on the Southwest Cougars Jan. 25/26, in a pair of match-ups with massive playoff implications. The Cougars are in fourth place in the standings, six points ahead of Eastman.