Kirk Mullen scored twice while Dominik Wasik stopped 29/32 shots as the Steinbach Pistons skated to a 5-3 victory in game four on Thursday night in Virden to take a 3-1 series lead.
Virden would open the scoring for the first time in the finals as Joey Bielik would direct a nice pass in from Trevor Hunt, 1:32 into the opening period.
Near the midway mark of the first, Parker Jasper would find Travis Hensrud down the right wing where he would snap a shot to the back of the net, tying up game four at 1-1.
Just like they did in the first, Virden would score in opening two minutes of the second period. Bray Rookes took a pass from Naton Miller before he spun and beat Wasik in front to give the Oil Caps’ a 2-1 lead.
Kirk Mullen would score his first of two on the night off a scramble in front of the Oil Caps’ crease when he put home a rebound to tie things up at 2-2 early in the second.
With less than five to play in the period, Dawson Milliken’s shot from the slot would beat Owen LaRocque to give the Pistons their first lead of the night. Just over a minute later, Davin Griffin would extend the Pistons lead to 4-2 with his shot off the rush.
Josh Lehto would jump on a broken play in front of the Pistons net with 36 seconds to play in the second period and put a rebound past Wasik to make it 4-3 Steinbach heading into the third period.
The two teams would battle back and forth in the opening ten minutes of the third before Kirk Mullen would score his second of the game when he skated into the slot and fired one to the back of the net to give the Pistons a 5-3 lead.
Virden would pull LaRocque for the extra attacker but that would be all as Steinbach would hold on for the game four victory to take a 3-1 series lead.
Game five is set for Saturday night in Steinbach at 7:30 inside the T.G. Smith Centre.
