Coming off a loss to Steinbach the Terriers battled Virden in a back and forth affair to come out on top.
Jared Roy picked up a drop pass from Joey Moffatt beating the defender in the slot to score the first of the night with a wrist shot. Just 30 seconds later Virden’s Belcher skated the Terrier’s defenceman to go in alone finding the back of the net on a sprawling Minor.
Late in the frame Einarson came in alone undressing minor for a 2-1 Virden lead, but less than a minute later, Logan Calder scored from the neutral zone batting in a puck that fooled Thompson and dribbled through his legs.
With the man advantage to start the 2nd period, Virden’s captain Ben Dalke scored top corner glove side to restore the Oil Cap’s lead. The Terrier’s once again drew even when Reilly Funk made the long pass to Lane Taylor who made a nice pass to Mac Walkington who buried his first MJHL goal.
Tanner Andrew scored on the partial breakaway for VOC and Jared Roy came back to knot things at 4 with his second of the night. With 25 seconds left in the frame Sheldin Howard picked a pass from McPhee out of his feet to score his 4th of the season on the powerplay and give the dogs the lead headed in to intermission.
Again, Virden managed to find the back of the net to tie things up. Cloutier on the powerplay. The 3rd would see the longest span of twelve and a half minutes without a goal before Rookie Owen Murray scored the eventual game winner for Portage.
With 2:00 on the clock, Portage called their 30 second time-out and Virden pulled their goalie looking for the equalizer, but Buchholz slammed the door shut with the empty netter and a 7-5 Portage final.
Minor earned his 4th win in net backing 16 of 21 shots. Next up the Terriers head to Neepawa this Sunday to face the Natives, game time 6:30pm.