Photo: Erica Perreaux/Hockey Canada Images
The Portage Terriers bested the Steinbach Pistons Friday evening at Stride Place by a score of
4-2.
The Terriers opened the scoring at the 5:30 mark of the first period. Daniel Siso and Ryan Botterill entered the Pistons zone on a two on one. Siso got the puck to Botterill with a saucer with Botterill Corralling it nicely and wiring it past Wasik to make it 1-0.
Just under a minute and a half later the Terriers would strike again to make the lead 2-0. Hayden Lacquette would get the puck down low to Rory Neill whose original shot got stoned by Wasik but on the second effort tucked it past the pad of Wasik.
At the 13:16 mark of the first period, Neill would get his second goal of the game to give the Terriers a strong 3-0 lead. Tayem Gislason put the puck on net with Wasik struggling to control the rebound and Neill jumped on the loose puck and put it over the should of Wasik and into the net.
Some frustration would start to show for the Pistons as Ty Paisley would take an undisciplined slashing penalty with just over five minutes left in the opening frame. Steinbach’s strong penalty kill would keep it going and kill of the penalty to keep the score 3-0 going into the first intermission.
The play would completely change in the second period with the Pistons coming out flying and with unrelenting pressure and strong established zone time. Ty Paisley would finally solve Bailey Monteith and the Pistons would get on the board at the 9:14 mark of the second period. Paisley got the puck at the right faceoff dot and looped around, wiring it over the shoulder of Monteith and into the net to make it 3-1.
Steinbach would get their first powerplay of the game with seven and a half minutes remaining in the second period but would not be able to capitalize on the chance. The Pistons would go into the second intermission down 3-1 but outshooting the Terriers 16-6 in the middle frame.
The Pistons would bring the score to within one, scoring at the 10:22 mark of the third period. Davis Fry got the puck to Travis Hensrud who then shot the puck from the high slot and past Monteith to make it 3-2.
The Pistons would start to pour it on and look for that tying goal, but all momentum gained was quashed with a Langley Kruggel slashing penalty with just under six minutes remaining.
Kian Calder would capitalize on the powerplay for the Terriers, one timing the puck top corner from the right faceoff dot to make the score 4-2 and put it out of reach.
Portage would hold on the to the two-goal lead and take the game 4-2 over the Steinbach Pistons.
