Neill comes up big in his Terriers post-season debut

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This article was published 13/05/2023 (1216 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE — Rory Neill’s timing was impeccable Friday night.

Playing in his first post-season game as a member of the Portage Terriers, the 19-year-old left-winger from Winnipeg scored twice during a three-goal first-period outburst and the home side went on to post a 4-2 triumph over the MJHL champion Steinbach Pistons in Centennial Cup preliminary-round action before 1,535 fans at Stride Place.

“I was just trying to do whatever I could to help the team but yeah, it was pretty surreal,” said Neill, whose new club was making its tournament debut as the host club at the national junior A hockey championship. “It was awesome.”

Neill, who spent the 2022-23 season with the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League’s St. James Canucks, was on Portage GM and head coach Blake Spiller’s short list for recall after playing a mid-season game with the club as an affiliate.

When the Canucks wrapped up a sweep of the St. Vital Junior Victorias in the MMJHL final on April 23, Neill was eligible to join the Terriers. He fit right in on a line with Mike Stubbs and Austin Peters.

“As soon as my season ended, I came out here and started practising with the boys for a last couple of weeks and it’s been a smooth transition so far,” said Neill, who had familiarity with a number of Terriers players, including defenceman Brandon McCartney who is a close friend.

It was the Terriers first game since April 19 — a span of 23 days — when they lost 3-2 in double overtime Game 7 of an MJHL semifinal to the Virden Oil Capitals.

The red-hot start Friday surprised just about everyone, Spiller included.

“We hoped that we were going to be good early and get that rust off like we talked about but and we made some real nice plays to score,” said Spiller. “I mean, their goalie didn’t have much of a chance on those (goals). It seemed like maybe (we) thought it was going to be a little bit easier in the second and they upped their game and we didn’t respond very well.”

Ryan Botterill opened scoring 5:30 into the game for the hosts.

Ty Paisley, at 9:16 of the second period, and Travis Hensrud, at 10:22 of the third, scored to give the Pistons a chance to equalize but Kian Calder’s power-play blast at 15:58 of the final frame secured the win for the Terriers.

“In first eight minutes we did nothing,” said Pistons GM and head coach Paul Dyck. “I think after we took the timeout — at that time we would had been outshot 9-1 and I think we outshot them 37-19 from that point forward… The guys thought we were snakebitten early on but you know what, our play away from the puck wasn’t very good and in the first eight minutes — it cost us.”

Pistons goaltender Dominik Wasik finished with 18 saves. Bailey Monteith had 26 stops in the Portage net.

Steinbach, with one point in the standings after a 2-1 overtime loss to the Collingwood Blues Thursday, will have an uphill climb to make the tournament playoffs.

They can start the process with a regulation victory and three points Sunday night against the Kam River Fighting Walleye. The Terriers face Kam River today at 7:30 p.m.

“We’re gonna need to win games outright here and that’s definitely one of them,” said Dyck. “Six points is probably going to be minimum to get into playoffs.”

In Friday’s other games, it was: Timmins Rock 4, Yarmouth Mariners 3 in overtime; and the Ottawa Junior Senators 2, Terrebonne Cobras 1 in overtime.

In today’s action, the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Battlefords North Stars take on the Collingwood Blues of the Ontario Junior Hockey League at 11:30 a.m.; Ottawa faces the two-time defending national champion Brooks Bandits at 3:30 p.m. and Portage meets the Kam River Fighting Walleye of the Superior International Junior Hockey League at 7:30 p.m.

Rock 4 Mariners 3 (OT)

Ethan Pool’s goal at 4:14 of the five-minute overtime lifted Timmins to victory.

Nolan Ring, Harry Clark and Thomas Beard also scored for the Rock, which led 3-2 in the third period until Yarmouth, with goaltender Joey Lovullo on the bench in favour of an extra attacker, sent the game to extra time on Reid Vos’s second of the afternoon.

Ryan Semple had the other goal for Yarmouth, beaten 7-2 by Brooks on Thursday.

“Our coaches are really good at preaching don’t play to play to lose, play to win,” said Timmins goaltender Patrick Boivin, who played a starring role with 46 saves. “We keep going and we battled through every minute of the game and you play every minute like it’s your last and we came out here and got the win. (We’re) super fortunate.”

Lovullo finished with 36 stops for Yarmouth, which led 2-1 early in the middle frame.

“It took us a little bit to… get our legs and then second period you could tell that we started going and 18 shots in the second period — three goals,” added Boivin. “We really got going in the second half of the game.”

Junior Senators 2 Cobras 1 (OT)

Massimo Gentile’s goal at 72 seconds into extra time gave Ottawa its first victory of the tournament.

Owen Protz also scored for the Sens, who got a 21-save effort from Rorke Applebee.

Steven Fournier had the lone marker for Terrebonne. Nikolas Hurtibise stopped 24 shots in the Cobras net.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca