The Portage Terriers fell flat against a tough Steinbach Pistons team on Sunday night, losing 6-1 at Stride Place.
Terrier captain Tayem Gislason opened the scoring with a blast from the point in the first minute of the game on an early power play. The game was close for the rest of the period, but with eight seconds left to go Grady Hoffman tied the game on the power play for the Pistons.
The momentum swung in favour of Steinbach in the second period. Connor Paronuzzi scored in the first minute, Sam Noad scored on a breakaway, and then tipped in a goal 12 minutes later to make it 4-1 Pistons. Steinbach had three straight power plays in the frame, including a 5 on 3, but couldn’t score on any of them. They outshot Portage 12-4 in the second.
“We felt good after the first, and I thought we had a good period, says Gislason. “We just didn’t come out that well in the second. We took some penalties, they scored some goals and we got down on ourselves.”
The game started to get chippy in the third period and Steinbach continued to pour on the pressure. Noah Szabo had a shot get through traffic, and former Terrier Brandon Funk found the back of the net on the power play.
The Terriers were outshot 33-18. They finished 1/5 on the power play and 5/7 on the penalty kill. They are back in action on Tuesday night in Selkirk.
