The Portage Terriers lost a tight battle with the Winkler Flyers 4-3 in a shootout.
Friday night was a penalty filled affair with Winkler taking six minor penalties, to Portage’s five. Most of the calls happened in the first period, but Portage went 0/5 with the man advantage.
In the second period things opened up with both teams scoring in bunches. Whenever someone scored, the other team responded with a goal within two minutes.
Evan Lachimea scored his first goal as a Terrier on a breakaway to start things off. Xyon Kiemeney responded quickly for Winkler with a nice goal at the side of the net. Winkler then took their first lead of the night when Dalton Andrew scored in front of the net on the power play.
Parker Korman cleaned up a rebound in front of the net for the Terriers to tie the game at two. Portage regained the lead on the power play with a beautiful goal from Slade Stanick who deked through a defenceman and scored while he was falling to the ice. As the period was set to expire, Trent Penner pulled the puck out from the corner and tucked it around Catellier to tie the game at 3.
With no goals in the third period the game was headed to overtime. In the extra frame Portage had some of their best chances of the night but were denied. In the shootout Portage scored first but the Flyers tied it with their final shooter. They then won it shortly after with a goal from Jayce Legaarden.
The Flyers outshot Portage 33-21. The Terrier’s power play struggled once again finishing 1/6.
“We definitely had an effort where I think we deserved to win,” says Terrier defenceman Parker Scherr. “We competed and had our chances but unfortunately they won in a shootout. As a team we should be proud of that effort and build on it going forward”
Before the game Terrier forward Slade Stanick was recognized as the MBLL Terrier player of the month for September. He had a point in all four games and a total of five.
Portage will play their fourth home game in a row on Sunday night against the OCN Blizzard at 6:30pm.
