Story courtesy portageonline.com
The Portage Terriers are back to their winning ways as they shutout the Winnipeg Freeze tonight on home ice. The Dogs were victorious 4-0 in the first game of a set of back-to-back outings with the Freeze.
Matt Wisener out-skated the Freeze defence as he entered the offensive zone with the puck. Austin Peters was with him, who he dished it off to, and Peters tapped the puck into the back of the net as he cut down the wing. This was the lone goal of the first period and put the Terriers up 1-0.
Near the midway mark of the second, while the Terriers were on the power-play, Daron Cyr made a pass across from one side of the boards to the other where Ryan Botterill was waiting. He ripped a shot top shelf for his second goal of the season, but he wasn’t done there.
Five minutes later, Wisener went for a wraparound attempt, and despite having a wide-open net, he was stuffed by the post, however, Botterill was there to clean it up. This made it 3-0 Portage after 40 minutes.
Just over a minute into the third, Hayden Lacquette fired a shot from the high slot that was tipped on its way by Botterill. A couple of hats flew onto the ice as the local product completed a natural hat-trick in only his fifth game with the team this season.
Terrier goaltender Jayden Catellier stood tall for the remainder of the third period, which brought the final score to 4-0 Portage.
Catellier describes the biggest factors in the win.
“We just came ready this time, and everyone was going tonight. That helped a lot,” Catellier explains. “We just played solid overall as a team. It was a good win.”
Catellier says he felt like he was in a zone tonight.
“The guys definitely helped, but I was feeling good,” says Catellier. “I think that’s what you should expect from us going forward. We’re not done yet.”
With tonight’s win, and after the Selkirk Steelers dropped their game tonight, Portage is now just four points back of the Steelers for their division’s final playoff spot. The Dogs also have three extra games left on their schedule.
The Terriers will have a rematch with the Freeze tomorrow night in Winnipeg with puck drop set for 6:15.
