Portage Terriers

The Portage Terriers had quite an eventful 2022-23 campaign. The team finished the regular season in first place and when the postseason was all said and done, they were a semi-finalist on the provincial and national stage.

The organization says they couldn't have made that happen without the 30,000+ fans that came to the regular season and playoff games. The team recently gave credit the many volunteers, the Ladies Auxiliary, the billet host families, their sponsors and their fans for helping keep everything afloat.

The Portage Terriers have eight graduating players who are forced to move on now that the season has ended, leaving holes to be filled for next year. 

Before the Centennial Cup even ended, the organization was planning for next year as they have already filled one of those eight holes. 18-year-old defenceman Nik Jones has committed to play in Portage in 2023-24.

Less than a week removed from their semi-final loss at the Centennial Cup, members of the Portage Terriers' organization are already back to work. 

The club held their annual Spring Evaluation Prospect Camp on Friday and Saturday, which saw players from across the province compete at Stride Place in front of Terrier coaches and scouts.

Scout Angus Moar says the Manitoba Junior Hockey League Draft is on June 4th.

The Portage Terriers awarded graduating goaltender Bailey Monteith their Top Performer award for his play at the 2023 Centennial Cup. 

In the round-robin, Monteith had three games with 34+ saves and in the quarterfinal against the Yarmouth Mariners, he stopped 36 shots to help the Terriers pick up a 2-1 victory. The Kamloops native is proud to receive the recognition but he gives his teammates a ton of credit for helping him play as well as he did.

The Portage Terriers have announced that their captain Kian Calder has won the Joe Sponarski Playoff MVP award.

The 20-year-old played big minutes throughout the postseason. His eight points in 12 games had him tied for third among defencemen in the MJHL. He also led Terrier defencemen during the Centennial Cup with six points in six games (2G,2A).

“Kian definitely matured and improved as a player in the past couple of seasons,” says Terrier head coach and GM Blake Spiller. “He did an excellent job as captain both at the rink and in the community.”

In 2019, the Terriers ended Battlefords playoff run in the Anavet cup on their ice. Now, only four years later, the Stars got to return the favour.

The Portage Terriers’ season came to an end last night and with it, a chance for a third national championship.

The Battlefords North Stars dominated the Terriers from start to finish in the semi final, winning 7-1.

The Portage Terriers are moving on to the Centennial Cup's semi-finals. 

The Dogs defeated the Yarmouth Mariners 2-1 in the quarterfinals tonight and are one of just four teams left in the tournament.

The Terriers struck first in the opening frame. Daniel Siso received the puck at the top of the faceoff circle on the power-play. He took a couple of strides toward the net, faked a shot and made a pass to the doorstep. The puck went right to Brock MacDonald, who made sure to capitalize.

During the Centennial Cup tournament this week in Portage la Prairie, one of the teams competing -- the Collingwood Blues from Ontario -- happened to notice some needs in our community and helped out. Salvation Army's Brenda Hammond says the food bank received some much-need help as a result.

The Portage Terriers ended the preliminary round of the Centennial Cup with a bang. The Dogs handed the Collingwood Blues their first loss of the tournament tonight, coming away with a 4-3 victory.

Portage's offence went to work early. Just over a minute into the game, on the power-play, Austin Peters carried the puck from end-to-end along the boards. As he reached the corner, he made a shot pass to his side for Ryan Botterill, who made no mistake.

Many Portage Terrier fans were quite surprised when they saw Rory Neill put home back-to-back goals in their opening game of the Centennial Cup. 

Neill had played only one game with the Terriers this season and only five total games with the squad over the last three years. However, in just two games at the Centennial Cup tournament, the 19-year-old has three goals and three assists.