Big, bad Flyers built for success

WINKLER — The Winkler Flyers went so long between winning MJHL titles that hometown kids such as Malachi Klassen and Trent Penner could only imagine how such a momentous occasion might feel.

Last Friday, thanks to a Game 4 series-clinching 5-4 win in overtime over the Steinbach Pistons, Klassen and Penner won’t have to dream about winning a championship. They’ve lived the experience.

After a 26-year drought, the Flyers were Turnbull Cup champions again.

“We used to go to (Flyers) games together from as far back as I can remember and wishing we’d be those guys someday,” recalled Klassen, a 20-year-old goaltender in his final season of junior eligibility. “I think you feel the (hometown) pressure for sure but at the same time that pressure is part of the excitement of getting the job done. It’s like, ‘Hey, we have a legitimate shot at doing this.’ That’s something you can actually feed off of to push you throughout the year, which is a cool feeling to have because not many people get a chance to win a championship.”

The season isn’t done for Klassen, Penner and their teammates.

On Tuesday, the Flyers leave for Oakville, Ont., to participate in the 10-team Centennial Cup national junior A championship where they will open preliminary-round play against the Superior International Junior Hockey League champion Sioux Lookout Bombers on Thursday morning.

What got the Flyers to this point is a testament to a cohesive coaching plan, talent and a hard-nosed approach to the game. Make no mistake, Winkler plays a heavy game. During the regular season, the Flyers led the MJHL with 1,199 in penalty minutes in 58 games. The Portage Terriers held down second place, 275 penalty minutes back.

Penner, a left-winger who earned a roster spot as a 17-year-old, has blossomed into one of the league’s best all-round forwards.

“That’s kind of how our team was built this year,” said Penner, who recently committed to play NCAA Division I hockey at the University Alaska-Fairbanks. “All of our top scorers are expected to be physical, block shots and play the game the right way… we’re pretty big compared to some other teams in the league and we’re not scared to throw the body around.”

Penner finished second in MJHL scoring with 29 goals and 78 points, only four points behind linemate Dalton Andrew, a 6-5, 205-pound right-winger who potted a league-high 43 goals.

“It’s the way they’ve taught us to play — a hard-nosed game,” said Andrew, a 20-year-old from Brandon who has committed to play at Acadia University (Wolfville, N.S.) next season. “Finish every check. There’s no fly-bys, no easy nights for the other team’s defence. Pucks in, finish them and wear them out and then at the end of the game, that’s when our skill takes over. I think that’s how we roll over teams.”

The team’s style has evolved since Justin Falk was hired as general manager and head coach prior to the 2021-22 season.

“When you start with a club you inherit a roster of players and we wanted to put our stamp on it and our framework behind it, but we have to also use what we’d been given,” said Falk, a bruising defenceman during an 11-year pro career that included 279 games in the NHL. “We found a way to complement a lot of our players in the last year or two with the recruits we brought in to build and mould the style that we wanted to play.”

To help deliver his message, Falk brought in former NHLers Ryan White and Eric Fehr to supplement his coaching staff. The commitment appears to have paid off. Winkler won 12 of 15 games in the post-season, including all five games that went to overtime.

“We demand a lot of these guys as far as on both sides of the puck and we’re very comfortable in those situations — tight-knit games, low-scoring games or rallying back if we’re down a goal or two,” added Falk. “We’ve done our best as a staff to prepare these guys for different moments of adversity, providing some obstacles in front of them where they need to be resilient throughout the course of the year so that they were well prepared for a playoff run. And that’s what we did.”

Fehr, the club’s officially designated director of player development, said the team has matured since he came on board at the start of 2022-23. This season, the Flyers started out hot — winning their first nine games — en route to a second overall finish in the league standings, eight points behind the No. 1 Pistons.

“We have a lot of size on our teams and we like to use our strength and play down low against other teams,” said Fehr, who played 652 regular-season NHL games. “We just try to wear teams down game after game after game. I think that’s something that worked for us in the playoffs.

“To be honest, in the regular season you play that game and (the officials) call quite a bit but once the playoffs come around and things tighten up, they’re not calling quite as much but we’re still delivering the same amount of checks and you see the penalty minutes drop down. Some teams are built for the regular season and some teams are built for playoffs. I would say we’re more of a playoff-style team,” Fehr said.

Added Andrew: “I think come playoffs we actually did a really good job of controlling our emotions and not taking as many penalties as we did in the regular season,” he said. “There was some games where we took a lot of penalties and let our emotions get the best of us but I think if we can continue what we did in playoffs and bring it there we’ll be fine.”

Since winning the league title, Falk has reminded his players they shouldn’t be content with what they’ve accomplished so far.

“We’ve got to redial ourselves in and set our sights on a national championship because this year, with everything that’s happened in the (CJHL), a lot of leagues have been shaken up,” said Klassen. “For example, Brooks won’t be there and they had a little bit of a dynasty go on there at the Centennial Cup. Now, it’s like ‘Hey, we can go here and win this thing. Why stop at this?’”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca