A slow start cost the Terriers who found themselves trailing 2-0 after 20 minutes.
Matt Christian beat Lasse Petersen just 1:08 in when Winkler made the most of giveaway in front to take the early lead. With a 2 man advantage, Brett Opperman would double the Flyers’ lead before the halfway point. Winkler owned the first, outshooting the Terriers 13-5.
Winkler scored another early marker in the second, Bates hitting Parrish with a backdoor pass to go up by 3.
Portage settled in and played their game from then on, but it wasn’t enough to over take the 4th place Flyers. Joey Moffatt notched his 15th of the season finding mesh on a Jacob Brown rebound to put Portage on the board 7:45 into the 2nd.
Portage cut Winkler’s lead to one on the powerplay, Ripplinger finding Enns with a cross ice feed where he beat Martyniuk with the one timer.
Down one in the third, the Terriers played their best 20 minutes of the game, but Martyniuk came up big for the Flyers and shut the door for a 3-2 Winkler final.
Petersen played a solid game in net giving the Terriers a chance to win and records the loss facing 29 shots.
Portage and Winkler are back at it this Friday at Stride Place for their last meeting of the regular season.