James McIsaac does the fly by after completing the hat trick.
The Terriers earned their way back in the win column this afternoon in front of 1000 fans at Stride Place with an 8-3 final over the Virden Oil Capitals. Portage’s top line of Brakel, Leipsic and McIsaac combined for 14 points on the night with McIsaac scoring 4 of the 8 goals.
McIsaac opened the scoring burying a pass from Jeremey Leipsic back door on Riley Mcveigh. Ben Dalke tied the game for Virden scoring on the powerplay at 13:55. Less than a minute later Brakel regained the lead for Portage scoring from the slot. Once again Virden answered on the powerplay with Carter Cowlthorp beating Brock Aiken. James McIsaac picked up his second of the game with the extra attacker with less than a minute to go for a one goal lead after 20 minutes.
“I thought we had a good jump right from the start,” says Terriers head coach and GM Blake Spiller. “We were a few guys short up front but everyone came to play. We had our feet going and made it hard on their back end, we got the forecheck going and that’s always key. We’re not a big club and not really physical, but we need to play that style where we’re on pucks quick to try and create turnovers that way, and I think we did that here.”
Just over halfway through the second, McIsaac completed the hat trick going top shelf on Mcveigh with Leipsic and Doyle assisting. Santin scored his eighth of the season at 14:57 and the Terriers were up by 3 outshooting Virden by 10 after 2 periods.
Not willing to let Virden back in, Portage came out in the third with more of the same. Ty Enns finished a pretty pass from Santin back door and McIsaac scored his 4th of the game on the powerplay a few minutes later. Dalke got his second of the night and only even strength goal for Virden at the 7:45 mark. Mackenzie Dwyer added his mark scoring with an ice burner 5 hole from the ringette line for an 8-3 Terrier final. Aiken picked up the win in net facing just 15 shots.
Next up for the Terriers is a home and home this weekend starting in Neepawa, on Friday. Don’t forget it’s Rain Cheque night on March 1st, our last home game of the year when we will be making our Cash Draw for the $10,000 Grand Prize. Don’t have your ticket yet? Call Heather at 870-1210 to get yours today. You have a 1 in 325 chance of winning!!!