Story by portageonline
The Portage Terriers now have a win under their belt. The Dogs took down the Winkler Flyers 3-2 on home ice tonight in a shootout. This was the final of four meetings to start the season between the Terriers and Flyers but Winkler had come out on top in the last three.
Both teams started the game playing very solid defensively as it took until the final two minutes of the first period for a goal to be scored. Terriers goaltender Chris Fines had his stick knocked away during a battle in front of his net and it took a few extra seconds for a teammate to get it back to him. Just as he got his stick back and into position, Jayden McCarthy ripped a shot over his glove and into the back of the net. 1-0 Winkler after one.
Portage forward Ethan Tinevez evened the score quite early in the second period off a rush, which was his first goal in the MJHL. Three minutes later, Matt Wisener went to his backhand on the breakaway for his first MJHL score as well and gave the Terriers a 2-1 lead.
Midway through the second, the Flyers came in on a 3-on-2 rush and Justin Svenson made a quick pass to Brody Beauchemin who dished it across to Ryan Monias. He made no mistake about it, firing the one-timer top shelf, tying the game at two, which is how the score would stay after two periods.
Both defences held their own in the third period and kept each other off the board, so this game needed overtime.
Logan Danis had two breakaway chances in the last minute of overtime, however, Terrier forward Jaden Pashe and defenceman Kian Calder each were able to get back and not allow him to get off a clean shot. Due to those great defensive efforts, this game proceeded to a shootout.
The shootout started with both squads missing their first two attempts and leaving it up to their third shooter. For Winkler, it was Josh Beauchemin and he capitalized on the opportunity which put the pressure on Logan Calder but he kept the game alive. From here it was sudden death. Danis redeemed himself here, after not getting shots off on breakaways in overtime, he was able to make his shootout chance count.
Jaden Pashe skated out onto the ice for Portage and the crowd roared as he took the puck from centre ice. Pashe fired a shot once he got in tight that beat Flyers’ goalie Brock Moroz, which would keep the shootout going. Winklers’ fifth shooter was Svenson and he couldn’t take advantage, leaving the opportunity open for Austin Peters to win the game for Portage. He describes what he saw in his shootout attempt.
“I knew (Moroz) was weak going back and forth or side to side,” says Peters. “I’m a young kid so I was nervous but I just came in and did all the moves I’d do on Fines in practice. A lot of the guys told me what to do I just went out there and did it.”
Peters made a few moves in very tight on Moroz and was able to just tap the puck past him while he was out of position. The Terriers’ fans erupted and the Dogs picked up win number one of the 2021-22 campaign. Peters outlines how it feels to get in the win column.
“It feels good. The boys worked really hard for this one. We couldn’t get it in the three games before, we were just getting some unlucky bounces but it was the fourth game against them and we really wanted it,” Peters explains. “Everyone was dialed in as soon as we came to the rink. We just knew what we had to do and we went out and did it.”
Peters notes this win was extremely important to them.
“Just to send us into next weekend against the (Winnipeg) Blues on a good note, so we can have a good week at practice,” says Peters. “We worked really hard last week, Spills (Terrier head coach Blake Spiller) pushed us really hard and he’s a great coach. We’re a young team and they’re an older team but this just shows you age doesn’t matter, if you work hard you can get it done.”
The Terriers will face off with the Winnipeg Blues in their next four-game season series. Game one of that is set for Friday, October 1 back at Stride Place.
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