Terriers looking like champions

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/05/2015 (4126 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. — Rolling on a hot start and a thunderous hometown crowd, the Portage Terriers’ road to the RBC Cup suddenly feels precipitously short.

Now, after hanging on to beat the Melfort Mustangs 3-2 Thursday night, the Terriers are just two wins away from Canada’s top junior A prize.

It wasn’t a perfect game by Portage, not by a long shot. What matters, though, is in a year in which their berth in the national tournament was always assured, the win meant the host Terriers finished the round robin on top. That’s right, the reigning MJHL champions are — for now — the RBC Cup tournament’s number one.

The Terriers opened the tournament with a most satisfying 3-2 win over the Penticton Vees, the same dynamo team that knocked them off in the final of the Western Canada Cup. They dropped their second match, a frustrating 3-0 shutout to the Carleton Place Canadians, before regrouping to trounce the Soo Thunderbirds 7-2.

All told, that 3-1-0-0 tournament record, combined with their head-to-head win over the rival Penticton, means they’ve locked up the most favourable semifinal matchup, which just happens to be a rematch against fourth-place Melfort on Saturday night.

Still, no way can they afford to take the Saskatchewan champs lightly.

“They gave us a run for their money,” said goalie Justin Laforest, who turned away 26 shots. “They showed us that they can play with us, so it’s going to have to be a battle of 60 minutes. We’re going to have to be better on Saturday than we were tonight.”

Because really, it was that hot start that kept Portage ahead on Thursday night, as their dynamite top line announced its presence early and often.

The Terriers opened the scoring 12 minutes into the first period, when a scramble in front of the Melfort net ended in a goal by Brad Bowles, with an assist to winger Zack Waldvogel; they increased their lead on a goal by defenceman Landon Peel just over a minute left in the first.

Then, just 46 seconds later and with only 30 seconds before the first intermission, Shawn Bowles and Waldvogel combined to make the play that would win it all.

“I gave it to Zack there, and he made a nice rush up the ice,” Bowles said of that tally, which also featured an assist to blue-liner Tanner Jago. “He just kind of threw it out in front, and I just banged it in, so all credit goes to him. It was just an easy tap-in.”

It was a thrilling start, and at PCU Centre, the crowd stomped their feet in approval. The match was sold-out and in some stretches of the arena, fans stood two rows deep around the uppermost row of seats, and they roared as the Terriers leaped out to that confident early lead.

Then, well, things got a little messy. While Melfort stayed out of the box, the Terriers took four penalties in the second, and defenceman Davis Ross suffered two more in the third. For players and head coach Blake Spiller, that march to the penalty box reminded a little too much of the Terriers’ pockmarked loss to the Carleton Place Canadians earlier in the week, a game in which they logged 13 infractions and 40 total penalty minutes.

“Officiating’s tight, and obviously we’re a little bit more slower learners than anyone else here,” Spiller said. “A couple five-on-threes, you start to gas a few of our guys and it makes it tougher on them later on. I didn’t think it was a total matter of us sitting back, but we were running out of energy there.”

The steady march to the box sucked the wind from Portage’s sails. In the first period, Melfort managed just half of the Terriers’ 10 shots on goal; in the second, the Mustangs attacked heavier and harder, firing 14 pucks at Laforest where Portage fired back only nine. Finally, in the dying seconds of a Melfort power play that included a little five-on-three time, Mustangs winger Travis Mayan finally snapped one in the Portage goal to put his team on the board.

With a fresh shot of confidence, Melfort fought hard to close the gap. In the third, Mustangs forward Cole Hyrsky made a slick move to slide the puck past Laforest, for their second goal. But the Terriers netminder stood strong with under six minutes left to play, snatching up a point-blank shot from Mustangs centre Andrew Durham to keep the game-winning lead.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca