About last night...Blizzard 4 - Blues 2

After a loss to the Portage Terriers in which the Blizzard felt they fought not just the opposing team but the refereeing as well OCN played a strong team game on Saturday night to pick up two points in a 4-2 win.

With Alex Henry serving the first game of a three game suspension, Brandon Beaulieu got the start in goal for OCN and played a superb game.

Beaulieu turned aside 49 of 51 shots his way, the Blizzard did a good job of keeping most of those shots to the outside, scoring opportunities were even in the game. Beaulieu was impressive, his rebound control was excellent, few times did he give the Terriers a second crack at the puck and his calmness in goal seemed to rub off on his defense who seemed less agitated than they did the night before against Portage.

If Beaulieu continues to play like that over the next two games the Blizzard coaching staff will have a tough decision as to who will start once Henry is eligible to return.

The Blizzard celebrate their 4-2 victory.

The game started slowly and slightly sloppily but a Wilson Dumais fight with Mitch Hansen of the Blues pulled some energy into the building and gave the Blizzard enough jump for Edward Bayer to score what could be the goal of the year with 2:59 left in the first. Bayer picked up a head of steam heading down the right wall, danced around the defender and fired a shot past the blocker of Scott Parsons for his fifth goal of the season. The deke and shot brought back memories of Bayer's play with the NorMan Northstars of the Manitoba Midget AAA Hockey League when he was the team's leading scorer and one of the most gifted players in the league in his 17-year old season.

Early in the second OCN's top line made it's mark on the game as Damien Kulynych made a pretty backhand pass to Tyler Grove who slid the puck under the left pad of Parsons just 1:13 into the period giving OCN the 2-0 lead.

The Blues' offensive fire power came to life just six minutes later on a power play goal by a knuckle puck from Ben Sveinson. That goal was followed up by a Mitch Hansen marker at 16:50 of the second period.

In the third the Blizzard would retake the lead as Rhett Law tipped in a shot from Edward Bayer, the goal was Law's second of the season and the 18-year old looked great on the third line with Bayer and veteran Kirk Chief.

Camacho Lathlin doubled the Blizzard lead with just 4:20 left in the third period after knocking home a Tyler Grove rebound. Lathlin looked good on the back end tonight and used his offensive talents to create some good opportunities earlier on in the game.

The shots were 51-20 in favour of Winnipeg.

Winnipeg went 1/4 on the power play while OCN was 0/1.

The Pire Tire  3 Stars:

1. Brandon Beaulieu (49/51 saves)
2. Edward Bayer (1 goal, 1 assist)
3. Kirk Chief (2 assists)