The Portage Terriers wrapped up a very successful weekend Sunday night by taking out the Steinbach Pistons 3-1 on home ice. It had been almost 6 weeks since the Pistons had suffered a loss.
The Terriers came out of the gate strong when Brenden Holba was sprung on a breakaway by Decker Mujcin and buried it past Steinbach goalie Cole Plowman. The Terriers kept the pressure up, and Austin McLean fired a laser under the crossbar for his first of the season midway through the first period.
“It was nice. I’ve been struggling a bit but I finally got one, so hopefully we can keep rolling from here,” says McLean. “We are very happy with our effort. It was one of our most complete games. We have them again on Friday, so they will be coming for us.”
The Pistons cut the lead in half early in the second period with Kirk Mullen’s 13th of the season. As the period was coming to a close, Nolan Nenow scored his 5th of the season to give Portage their two-goal lead once again.
In the third period, Terrier goalie Jayden Catellier made a huge save on a goal-mouth scramble to keep his team in the game. The veteran netminder played a big role in the win turning aside 30 of the 31 shots he faced.
“I wanted to stay solid for the guys. They played well in front of me so it was my turn to help them out,” says Catellier. “It felt pretty good. The guys came out strong so it gave us momentum early on.”
The Terriers were outshot 31-20 and both teams finished the night 0/3 on the power play. They will meet again on Friday in La Broquerie.
It was a special game for the Terriers, who recognized head coach Blake Spiller, assistant coach Paul Harland, and goalie coach Jim Tkachyk for their 1000th MJHL regular season game coached. It was also their second win of the weekend after they defeated Waywayseecapo 4-2 Saturday on home ice as well. The wins mean the Terriers (17-6-3-2) hold down second spot in their division, 2 points behind Steinbach and 3 ahead of Winkler. Winkler has however played 6 fewer games.
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