Celebrating Dwyer’s one timer game winning goal.
The Terriers played their final home game of the regular season last night in front of their biggest crowd to date this season at Stride Place. It was an exciting overtime win to excite the crowd after a slow twenty minutes in the second.
Portage jumped out to an early lead on Swan Valley with a powerplay marker from Layne Toder who banked in a point shot off Brett Evans’ pad. The one goal lead held through the first frame.
Fighting for the last playoff spot, the Stampeders came out with some jump in the second and scored their first just :29 seconds in when Navrot buried a bullet over the glove of Brock Aiken to tie the game at one. A minute later, Leblanc took advantage of the screen in front to find the back of the net and take over the lead. Denying the Terriers an even up goal with the extra attacker late in the period, the Stamps’ Jameson found the net glove side on the two on one with 2:40 to go in the frame for a 2 goal cushion.
“We weren’t really winning many battles and didn’t seem to be competing. Really, no one was playing very well in the second,” admits Paul Harland, Terriers assistant coach. “It was a nice crowd here and we wanted to make sure we gave a good effort in the third period to get ourselves back in the game. We started getting pucks to the net and playing harder. We got some shots, banged a few in to get it to overtime, then capitalized on a powerplay to get the win.”
The Terriers came out in the third with a little more drive and energy. James McIsaac skyed one on Evans on a backdoor pass from Brakel. Barnstable tied the game with just over 7 minutes to go with his 10th of the year from Enns and Sokoloski. With :41 left on the clock, Cohan took a cross checking penalty for Swan Valley. The game remained tied after regulation, but the Dogs started overtime with the man advantage.
1:17 in to the extra frame, Swan Valley picked up another minor when Jameson was sent to the box for high sticking. Mackenzie Dwyer scored the game winner with a one timer from the point that popped the lid off the water bottle and sprayed the glass with water. It was a fitting end to the regular season at home.
The Terriers head to Steinbach on Friday to face the first place Pistons, then finish up the regular season in Wayway on Sunday.