The Portage Terriers handed the Winkler Flyers just their third loss of the season on Wednesday night 4-0.
It was a tight-checking physical affair with both teams making multiple trips to the box. From the opening whistle to the final horn, the Terriers played with a level of energy and focus that was lacking in the overtime loss on Saturday to the Winnipeg Freeze.
Despite no score in the first period, the Terriers got some good chances and showed they wouldn’t be pushed around when the Flyers played physical. In the second period, newcomer Owen Underhill snapped a beautiful shot over the shoulder of Winkler’s Malachi Klassen to open the scoring. The rest of the period would be filled with penalties for both teams. The Terriers killed off a full two-minute 5 on 3 Winkler power play, which helped build momentum heading into the third.
Early in the the frame, it appeared that Winkler had tied the game. Instead, the goal was waved off and a four-minute double minor was handed out for high sticking. Soon after play resumed, the Flyers took another penalty for cross-checking. The dogs then quickly scored on a blast from Tayem Gislason. A minute later, still on the power play, Underhill banged home his second of the night in front of the net. The game continued to be physical with Mighton Johnson dropping the gloves in his Terrier debut with Dalton Andrew. Brenden Holba added an empty net goal for Portage to put it out of reach. The Terriers have not lost two in a row all season long.
Jayden Catellier played well between the pipes stopping all 29 shots he faced. Portage will look for a similar effort when they head to Selkirk on Saturday night. The game will be broadcast on CFRY and Portageonline starting with the Hi Tec Industries pregame show at 7:20 pm. (listen here)
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