Story courtesy portageonline.com
The Portage Terriers have added another win to their total. The Dogs’ took down the Winnipeg Freeze 7-5 Wednesday night on home ice in a back-and-forth affair. Daniel Siso lead the way picking up four goals and two assists.
The Terriers opened the scoring early as Austin McLean created a turnover behind the Freeze’s net. As soon as he came out in front, he fed Daniel Siso, who put it between the goalie’s pads. 1-0 Portage.
A minute later, Nathan Leneski came away with the puck, in the offensive zone, after knocking away a Terrier defender’s stick. He made a quick pass across the crease to Ryland Hueging, who tied the game up 1-1.
Six minutes into the period, Ashton Fishley took a shot from the point that was stopped, but the rebound went right Siso, who jammed it into the back of the net for his second goal of the outing.
The Freeze would respond quickly once again, as Hueging was waiting on the doorstep, and was fed a pass that he just had to tap past Jayden Catellier. 2-2. Siso and Hueging had been trading goals up to this point, and it didn’t stop there.
Wisener skated into the offensive zone, along the wing, and looked to make a centering pass to McLean in tight, but the puck hit a skate on its way to him, however, Siso was trailing and able to finish the play and complete a hat-trick in less than 10 minutes of game time. This gave the Terriers a 3-2 heading into the second.
Near the midway mark of the contest, Hueging was able to finish off his hat-trick for Winnipeg, beating Catellier on the glove side and tying the game back up.
With seven minutes left in the second, Hayden Lacquette fired a shot that went wide, which made Freeze goalie Michael O’Sullivan sprawl out to try and cover it up, however, it was poked away. With the goaltender out of position, Riley Borody scooped up the loose puck, and while his initial shot was stopped, the puck came right back to him, and he found the back of the net on his second time around. 4-3 Dogs.
Later in the frame, Lacquette scored one himself on the power-play. Winnipeg responded with a power-play goal of their own, however as Hueging scored his fourth of the game, bringing the score to 5-4 with just 20 seconds left in the second.
The Terriers built up the two-goal lead once again in the third as Wisener out-skated the defence and slid the puck past O’Sullivan.
Dean Gorchynski gave Winnipeg some hope for a comeback by bringing it to a one-goal game, but Siso potted an empty netter late to seal it up. This brought us the final score of 7-5 Portage.
Terrier forward Daniel Siso outlines the keys to victory.
“We started out a bit rocky in the beginning, but we decided just to keep it simple,” says Siso. “We just got pucks in the zone, and threw anything at the net, and I think it showed.”
Siso talks about how it felt to have the hot hand in this one.
“Obviously, it feels great, but I couldn’t do it without the teammates,” Siso explains. “So, I’m glad they were kind of looking for me, and I’m just happy I can contribute.”
The Terriers will have just one day of rest before they hit the road for a rematch with the Winnipeg Freeze on Friday.