The Portage dropped their final regular season game of the year on Wednesday night 6-3 to the Niverville Nighthawks.
There wasn’t much on the line for both teams as the Terriers are locked in third place and the Nighthawks in fourth. This allowed the Terriers to give increased minutes to some different players including “AP” call up Tyler Kendall who made his MJHL debut on the blue line.
The Terriers started the game with a bang when Scott Cousins scored a nice shot upstairs in the first two minutes. 20 seconds later the Nighthawks scored on a similar shot to tie the game. Niverville took the lead late in the first period and never gave it back. 2-1 Nighthawks after 1.
The game fell apart for the Terriers in the second period. Despite an early goal from Will McKay, Niverville added three more goals, to make it 5-2 and end the night for Terrier goalie Mitchell Kathler. He stopped 13 of 18 shots. Ryan Velan came into the game in relief and looked strong even though he let in a tough shot on the power play at the end of the second.
With the score out of hand in the third period Portage was able to get one more goal from Dawson Madden.
The Terriers will now get ready for their final game of the regular season on Saturday night at Stride Place. The Terriers will also hold their annual awards ceremony on Sunday at 1pm at Stride Place and then their skills competition at 3pm. There will be a skate with the Terriers after the skills competition. More details can be found at portageterriers.com.