Winkler Flyers Bow Out of CEntennial Cup with Quarterfinal loss
By their standards, the Centennial Cup was a failure. But according to the official Canadian Junior 'A' hockey cross-Canada rankings, the Manitoba Junior Hockey League's Winkler Flyers finished the 2023-24 season fifth in the country.
No, they didn't fare all that well at the year-end National Championship, but the experience in Oakville, Ontario as the MJHL's representative certainly provided the league's first-place team with an added reward.
Riding the high of a four-game MJHL Finals sweep over the Steinbach Pistons, Winkler rolled into Oakville and took care of business in the tournament's opening game with a 4-2 win over Sioux Lookout. MJHL top scorer Dalton Andrew collected all four goals for the Flyers, which looked to keep the good times rolling against Melfort in their next game.
That contest, however, resulted in a loss, a narrow 6-5 loss, albeit, but it did affect Winkler's record. The Flyers then split their final two preliminary round games by way of a 4-0 victory over the hosts and a 3-2 loss to Miramichi, concluding with a 2-2-0 record through four games.
Winkler ended its tournament with a 4-2 loss to the 3-1 Calgary Canucks of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. Battling back from a 2-0 hole, the Flyers tied things up by the end of the second period. But an unsportsmanlike penalty served by Gavin Schmidt gave the Canucks an early third period power play, to which Calgary pulled back ahead. It added another goal just four minutes later, finishing off the Flyers, 4-2.
Calgary eventually lost to Melfort in the semifinal, before Melfort fell 1-0 to the OJHL's Collingwood Blues in the championship game from Sixteen Mile Sports Complex.
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