Special teams were a struggle for the Portage Terriers on Sunday night falling 4-2 to the Dauphin Kings.
Similar to game one of the series, Portage outplayed the Kings early, and Caleb Lepitre opened the scoring late in the first period on the power play. The Terriers outshot the Kings in the first, 12-1.
Things fell apart for the Terriers in the second period. Matthew Thomas got the Kings on the board in the first two minutes with a beautiful one-timer on the power play over the shoulder of Mitchell Kathler. Dawson Madden responded 18 seconds later by deflecting a Scott Cousins pass behind Cole Sheffield. Dauphin then scored three straight goals and never looked back, two of them coming on the power play.
After letting in four goals on 16 shots, Kathler’s night was done after two periods. Ryan Velan made his playoff debut in the third period and stopped the four shots that came his way. Late pressure from Portage wasn’t enough to tie the game.
The Dauphin Kings now have a 2-0 series leading heading back to Portage for game 3 on Tuesday night.