The Portage Terriers showed their resilience on Saturday night erasing an early two goal deficit and coming back to beat the first place Niverville Nighthawks 7-4.
“The boys are super excited about the win. They are a good squad but I felt we had our best game yet,” says assistant captain Slade Stanick. “I think a lot of it was our forecheck. We were hard on pucks in their end, and our d-zone was good too.”
The Terriers started the game with a couple of strong shifts before the Nighthawks potted two quick goals. Portage didn’t give up and started to claw back. Stanick scored a nice goal in the slot, and Nathan Lenoski tied the game before the end of the period. The Terriers out shot the Nighthawks 12-6. 2-2 after one.
The second period was a back and forth affair with Niverville trying to take over. They outshot Portage 13-10 but the Terriers kept up on the score sheet. Every very time the Nighthawks scored Portage responded within four minutes. Lenoski scored his second of the night and Brenden Holba scored his second of the season. 4-4 after 2.
The Terriers pulled away in the third period getting goals from Gabriel Laflamme on the power play, Tayem Gislason through traffic and then Lenoski into the empty net to complete the hattrick. For the captain, Gislason, it was his first of the season.
“It felt nice. It was the first time getting a hattrick,” says Lenoski. “We have a day off tomorrow, but after that it’s back to practice. We are having a good time, and we want that to carry over to our games next week.”
The Terriers will play their 7th home game in a row on Friday night when they host Lenoski’s former team, the Winnipeg Freeze.
