NEWS

Ron Valentine is profiling the 10 teams participating in the 2023 Centennial Cup in Portage la Prairie May 11-21.

Today: the Manitoba champions

By Ron Valentine

The Manitoba Junior Hockey League will have two representatives at the Centennial Cup, the host Portage Terriers and the league champs, the STEINBACH PISTONS.

In their regular season, the Pistons were runners-up to Portage in the East Division, finishing with 85 points, five behind the leader. It took the Pistons the full seven games to get past the Winkler Flyers in Round 1 of the playoffs, taking the final contest 4-2 at home, before stopping the Swan Valley Stampeders in six, winning that series on the road. In the final they bested the Virden Oil Kings in five games to claim the Turnbull Cup.

Travis Hensrud, committed to the NCAA Division 1 Northern Michigan Wildcats, led the club with 35 goals and 72 points. Ian Hamsbaugh had 58 points and Ty Paisley, who has committed to the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, had 56. Paisley had a massive playoff run with a club-leading 29 points including 11 goals in 18 games. Kirk Mullen weighed in with 20. The team is captained by Dawson Milliken, who, after a tough regular campaign with injuries, came on strongly in the postseason with nine goals and 16 points. 

In the net, Dominik Wasik, an NCAA Division 1 Air Force Academy Falcons commit, posted a 2.22 goals against average in the regular schedule. Former Selkirk Steeler Cole Plowman, ended at 2.33. In the postseason, Wasik started all the games and posted a GAA of 2.35.

The Pistons, whose home ice is the 1,250-seat Centennial Arena at the T.G. Smith Centre, will be moving into a new venue soon. The current franchise started operations in 2009 and was named the 'Pistons' in recognition of Steinbach's reputation as the 'Automobile City.'

Paul Dyck, born in Steinbach, is the team's GM/head coach. As a tough defenceman, he played 17 seasons in professional hockey including five with the IHL's Houston Aeros. He has completed 11 years behind the bench for the Pistons and was assistant coach in the 2015-16 World Junior A Challenge with gold-medal winning Team Canada West.

"The last game in our 55-year old arena in front of almost 1,400 fans when we shut out Virden was quite the emotional one for everyone,” he told the OJHL. “Next season we will be moving to a temporary facility before opening in our state of the art building in 2024. It will hold 2,500 for hockey and hopefully will allow us to stage national events. We got tremendous support from our fans and the players really appreciated that."

"It was a long season and we found different ways to win games. The players became battle-tested and showed great endurance. As an example, in Round 2 of the playoffs (against Swan Valley) we played six games in 11 days and it's a six-hour trip one way so we had some very late arrivals back home."

"Whenever we were backed into a corner, our players responded really well. I was always confident in their ability and it's great that six of our players have been rewarded with NCAA Division 1 scholarships. It was really exciting to see the release by the players after that final win against the Oil Kings and now they will be looking forward to the biggest highlight in their sporting lives."

“You never know what will happen but we are confident going into the championship finals. We face the Collingwood Blues on opening night and it will be great to renew our rivalry with Mike (Tarantino, Collingwood’s GM) who has constructed a great team in Collingwood. The Pistons, as Avanet Cup champions, went to the Royal Bank Cup in 2018 in Chilliwack but were eliminated after the round-robin. The field is going to be very strong this time around but we have to like our chances."

That opening-night game with Collingwood goes May 11 at 8:30 p.m. ET.

For more on the Centennial Cup, go to the tournament website: https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/national-championships/men/national-junior-a/2023