Story Courtesy Portageonline.com
The Portage Terriers have now lost their second straight game against the Steinbach Pistons. The Dogs were defeated 4-2 on home ice Friday night in a game where most of the action happened in the early going.
Just a minute and a half into the contest, Davin Griffin scooped up a rebound right in front of Terrier goalie, Jayden Catellier, and stretched out to slip it past him. 1-0 Pistons.
A little over five minutes into the first, Riley Borody raced to the puck in the corner and was able to come away with it. While fighting off a few Pistons’ players, Borody made a short pass to Nathan Flodell, who was in tight and made no mistake about it, tying the game at 1-1.
Still, in the first half of the frame, David Cote fired a shot from the point that was tipped on its way to the net by Copper Rice and beat Catellier low. This gave the Pistons back the lead, however, it didn’t take Portage long to respond.
About a minute later, Aiden Sotas had the puck behind Steinbach’s net and fed Brandon Funk, in front, who was able to find the back of the net and tie the game. The game wouldn’t stay tied for long though as a minute later, Zach Power skated down the slot and beat Catellier point-blank. 3-2 Pistons after 20 minutes.
Catellier would go on to stop 19 shots in the next two periods to keep the game within striking distance for the Terriers but they were unable to tie the game back up. Travis Hensrud scored from his own zone on the empty net in the last 30 seconds to seal the deal for Steinbach and bring the final score to 4-2.
Terrier defenceman Daron Cyr outlines what they would’ve liked to do differently tonight.
“We definitely should’ve battled a little harder, when it meant the most, but we’ve shown that we can play with this team, and they’re one of the best teams in the league,” says Cyr. “The last two games have been tight, and we can definitely beat this team. We just need to do the little things and keep chipping away at them.”
The Terriers were able to beat Steinbach last Saturday, Cyr describes what they’ll be looking to do to pick up that same result tomorrow night.
“We’re definitely going to go into their building with guns blazing,” Cyr explains. “We’re going to come out quick and take it to them. We’ll see where it goes from there.”
The Pistons and Terriers will have their final meeting of the regular season tomorrow in Steinbach with puck drop set for 7:30.
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