The Swan Valley Stampeders saw their Best of 7 first round series lead split in half on Tuesday night after a 6-3 loss to the Dauphin Kings at the Centennial Arena.
For the first time in the first round series the Stampeders struck first as initially being stopped, Justin Keck got the puck again and this time slid it around Cole Sheffield for his 3rd of the series to make it 1-0 SV just 8:48 in.
Just two minutes later they’d add to their lead as Jakob Jones got a nice deflection on Collin Jennings long point shot to make it a 2 goal lead just over half-way through the period.
Dauphin cut their deficit though in half with just 1:02 left in the period on the powerplay on a nice tip from Jayden Harris to make it 2-1 for the home-side after 20 minutes.
The Kings continue their momentum into the 2nd period as just 1:45 into the middle frame, Blake Boudreau walked out and beat Kobe Grant over the left pad for his 1st of the playoffs to tie it up.
The visitors grabbed their first lead at 6:45 of the 2nd as Logan Walker banged home a rebound before Deepkaran Hans added some insurance just a short time later on a nice back-door feed from Aidan Brook to make it 4-2 after 40 minutes.
In the 3rd, the Stampeders cut it back within one as Justin Keck went forehand and backhand & in for his 2nd of the night to make it 4-3 but then a quick response again from the Kings this time from Matthew Gough to retain the two goal lead before Myles Yearwood wrapped up the scoring.
Cole Sheffield in the Kings net made 33 saves on 36 shots for the win while Stamps G Kobe Grant turned aside 37 shots in the loss.
The series now shifts back to Dauphin for Game 4 on Friday night. GX94 will broadcast the game with the pregame show starting 7:20 and play by play kicks off 7:30PM MB time from Credit Union Place.
Elsewhere in MJHL,
Niverville 5, Portage 4
(Portage leads 2-1)
Winkler 1, Steinbach 3
(Steinbach leads 2-1)
OCN 6, Virden 4
(OCN leads 2-1)