The Portage Terriers held on to a late lead on Sunday night, beating the Winkler Flyers 3-2 at Stride Place. The win ties the best-of-7 quarter final series at one game a piece and sends it back to Winkler on Wednesday for game three.
The Terriers looked strong out of the gate, getting some good chances on Winkler goalie Malachi Klassen. Eventually one would get through as Slade Stanick finished off a nice pass in front from Gabriel Laflamme and Parker Scherr. 1-0 Portage after 1.
The game started to tilt in Portage's favour in the second period as they continued to pour on the pressure. Parker Korman had a team leading 18 goals in the regular season and he scored his first of the playoffs midway through the second on the power play. As the period was about to expire, with nine seconds left, Scherr fired a shot through traffic just under the cross bar to make it 3-0 Portage. The Terriers outshot Winkler 12-4 in the second period.
Klassen's night would be done after letting in three goals on 21 shots and Liam Ernst came into the game to start the third period for Winkler. The Flyers never gave up and started to make a comeback. Halfway through the period both team started to get extra physical and multiple line brawls ensued. At one point the Terriers were left with only 6 skaters on the bench. 68 minutes in penalties were handed out in the third period alone. Portage finished the night 1/3 on the power play. The Flyers opened the scoring on a 5 on 3 power play. Connor Jensen banged home the puck at the side of the net. Then with six minutes left they pulled their goalie and Trent Penner knocked home a loose puck to draw within one. With time ticking down the Terriers were able to keep Winkler at bay and hang on for the 3-2 win.
Game 3 in Winkler will be at 7pm on Wednesday night. The game will be broadcast on CFRY and portageonline.com.
