Story courtesy Portageonline.com
The Portage Terriers are disappointed with their performance in their home opener. They dropped an 8-2 decision to the Winkler Flyers Sunday night and fell to 0-2 so far this season.
The Terriers found themselves down a man twice within the first ten minutes but built some momentum after killing both penalties. Once they got a power-play opportunity of their own the Dogs took advantage as defenceman Kian Calder ripped a shot past Flyers’ goalie Dylan Meilun to open the scoring.
Winkler would respond less than a minute later as Justin Svenson tipped a shot that was going to go wide of the net and had it surprise Terrier goalie Chris Fines as it found the back of the net.
Unfortunately for the Terriers, another tough bounce put Winkler in the lead. Winkler forward Josh Beauchemin took a hard shot that went high and off the glass, however, it hit the back of Fines and fell into the net. 2-1 Flyers.
The Terriers penalty kill unit became very active in the second period and Winkler took advantage. Jayden McCarthy scored his third goal of the season during 4-on-3 play and less than a minute after that, Portage would take another penalty to make it 5-on-3 and Svenson capitalized for his second goal of the night.
With a three-goal lead, the Flyers continued to bring the pressure. Late in the period, Nicholas McKee made a quick move in-tight to beat Fines before Rylan Jockims scored again in a span of seven seconds. This made it 6-1 after 40 minutes of play.
Jayden Catellier started the third period in goal for Portage but the switch wasn’t enough to spark a comeback for the Dogs. Forward Brandon Funk got the last goal for Portage on a power-play and Winkler found the back of the net two more times to make the final score 8-2.
Terrier forward Logan Calder outlines what they needed to do better.
“I think we need to get more bodies in front of the net,” Calder explains. “We were putting the puck on the net but we just didn’t have enough support in front to bang in those rebounds that were coming out tonight.”
Calder says there were still some positives they can take away from tonight’s outing.
“I think we battled hard. We faced adversity early in the game and I think we battled through that relatively well, considering we’re a young team,” says Calder. ” I think our young guys handled it pretty well.”
The Terriers’ next game will be another one with the Flyers, this time in Winkler which will take place on Friday, September 24.
For the complete box score CLICK HERE.
