Portage Terriers

The Portage Terriers’ 11-game win streak came to an end on Friday night when they lost 4-3 to the Northern Manitoba Blizzard.

The Terriers have struggled early in games throughout the season and Friday night was no different. Midway through the first period Keenan McNeill snapped home a shot over the shoulder of Terrier goalie Ryan Velan on the power play. 38 seconds later the Blizzard scored again with a Marlen Edwards point shot deflecting into the net.

The Portage Terriers picked up their fifth win of the season on Wednesday night, beating the Niverville Nighthawks 3-1 on home ice.

The Portage Terriers are hungry to start the new 2024-25 season after being bounced from the playoffs in the first round this Spring. The only consolation from an early playoff exit was the fact it was at the hands of the eventual league champions, the Winkler Flyers.

The Portage Terriers have acquired D Rylan Bray (06) from the Neepawa Titans for a Player Development Fee.

Bray (6’2, 170) started last season playing six games for the Titans before being moved to the Yellowhead Chiefs U18 AAA. “Rylan is a skilled puck moving defenceman,” says Terrier head coach and GM Blake Spiller. “We are excited to have him join our organization.”

Heading into his 18-year-old season, the Neepawa product was drafted in the 7 round (#145 overall) by the Red Deer Rebels (WHL) in the 2021 WHL Bantam Draft.

The Portage Terriers joined the other members of the league for the MJHL Draft on Sunday morning. 

Portage made selections in the first, fourth, fifth and sixth rounds.

Ninth overall, they selected Jonah Lemoine of the U18 Brandon Wheat Kings. Terriers Head Scout Angus Moar shared his perspective on the selection.

"He's a skilled right winger from Brandon. He has always been a contributor to the Brandon AAA programs."

With their next pick, 48th overall, Portage selected Jack Perrier from Darlingford. Moar added his thoughts on who Perrier is as a player.

The Portage Terriers will be protecting local players F Koy Funk (08) and D Lawson O’Ray (08) ahead of the MJHL entry draft on Sunday, June 2.

Each MJHL team is eligible to select up to two local players from their region to be added to their protected list. The draft will begin at 10 am on Sunday and will be updated live through RinkNet Live Draft Centre technology. See full list of MJHL Auto protected players here.

The Portage Terriers’ season came to a close Saturday night when they lost 6-3 to the Winkler Flyers.

The Flyers continued their strong physical style of hockey in game 5 and used their home crowd to their advantage. They scored three unanswered goals in the first period from Brady Craik, Trent Penner, and Jakob Jones. All of the momentum was in Winkler’s favour as they outshot Portage 17-5. This was the first period in the series where not a single penalty was called.

A late surge couldn’t get the Terriers back into Game 4, falling 3-1 to the Winkler Flyers. Portage had a hard time generating offence and ended the game getting outshot 34-22.

The Terriers started the game slowly by taking a pair of back to back penalties. After killing them off, they weren’t able to capitalize when they got power plays of their own in the second half of the first period. Winkler got on the board off a turnover in the Terrier end and Jakob Jones fired it past Gavin Renwick to make it 1-0 Flyers.

The Portage Terriers couldn’t complete a late game comeback against the Winkler Flyers on Wednesday night and lost 5-3. The Flyers thrived on home ice playing a heavy physical brand of hockey.

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.