A dramatic defeat

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This article was published 23/04/2019 (2509 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the fourth time in five years, members of the Portage Terriers ended their Manitoba Junior Hockey League season by hoisting the Turnbull Cup over their heads.

But out of all their MJHL championships, this year’s might go down as the team’s most dramatic.

Portage defeated the Swan Valley Stampeders 3-2 in overtime in front of 2,196 fans at Stride Place in Portage la Prairie on Monday night to win the league title in a winner-takes-all Game 7.

The Terriers were seconds away from winning in regulation, led 2-1 in the third period with only seven seconds remaining. But Swan Valley forward Matthew Osadick batted in his own rebound to force overtime and silence the home crowd.

Portage didn’t panic, and five minutes into overtime, Reece Henry proved to be the hero. The Portage forward brought the puck down the ice after blocking a shot and beat Swan Valley netminder Merek Pipes with a backhander to capture the Turnbull Cup for the Terriers.

“I just blocked a shot, tried to get in the lane and it squirted out past the blue line,” Henry said, moments after scoring the biggest goal of his life. “It was the hardest I’ve skated in my life to get to that puck. I beat the guy to it, just took it in on the backhand to the goalie on a wide-open net.”

It was the first time the MJHL championship series went to seven games since the 1995-96 season when the St. James Canadians took down the Neepawa Natives. The Terriers forced a Game 7 with a 5-2 road victory over the Stampeders on Thursday. Swan Valley will head into next season — which will be their 21st year as a franchise — still searching for their first MJHL championship.

Portage was the top team in the regular season with a 46-11-2-1 record that gave them home-ice advantage throughout the post-season.

Terriers defenceman Sam Huston said playing the most important game of the season at home — where the team is 30-5-2-1 this season after Monday night’s win — made all the difference in a series as tightly contested as this one. In seven games, the Stampeders outscored the Terriers 23-21.

“These fans were unbelievable,” said Huston, who was named the most valuable player of the playoffs. “I know Swan had a great group of fans come down and all props to them. But I think us having home ice really took over and was a big part of it.”

The Terriers scored first, as Huston scored eight minutes into the game for his seventh goal of the post-season. Heading into the second period, it looked like Portage would take control of the game as they began the period with a 5-on-3 power play for a minute and a half. But the Stampeders held on, and managed to score a power-play goal of their own a couple minutes after successfully killing off Portage’s 5-on-3 advantage. Osadick rifled one past Portage goalie Nathan Moore for his tenth goal of the playoffs to tie the game at 1-1 midway through the second frame.

Less than two minutes later, Portage forward Chase Brakel — who scored the game-winner for the Terriers in Game 6 — took a shot from the wing that Pipes couldn’t handle to make it a 2-1 game with just under 12 minutes left in the second period.

Pipes made 24 saves in a losing effort and finishes with an 11-6 playoff record for the Stamps. Moore, who was playing in only his fourth game this post-season, made 30 saves in the victory to give him a perfect 3-0 playoff record. Portage head coach Blake Spiller opted to go with Moore instead of Ethan Peters, despite Peters winning nine out of his 12 post-season starts.

The Terriers will go on to play for the Anavet Cup against the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League champions, the Battlefords North Stars. The best-of-seven series will begin on Friday at Stride Place. The full Anavet Cup schedule will be released today. The winner will play in the National Junior A Championship in Brooks, Alta., from May 11-19. Portage was the last MJHL team to win the national championship, as they captured the title in 2015.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31