Season over, Pistons ousted by Terriers

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This article was published 04/04/2017 (2571 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Steinbach Pistons were eliminated from the Manitoba Junior Hockey League playofffs Tuesday night at Portage with a 2-0 loss to the Portage Terriers.

Portage wins the best of seven semi-final series four games to two.

Down 3-1 in the series, the Pistons won 3-2 Sunday night in Steinbach to take this series back to game six in Portage. But there just wasn’t enough gas in the tank last night in Portage for the Pistons to stare down elimination one more time in attempts to force game seven, which would have been played tonight in Steinbach. Instead, the T.G. Smith Centre will be silent.

Scoreless in the first in last night’s game, Portage scored twice three minutes apart midway through the second, and those goals stood up as the Pistons were not able to get one by Kurtis Chapman in the game.

James McIsaac scored what proved to be the winning goal on the powerplay at 7:33 of the second and Scott Mickoski made it 2-0 three minutes later.

Chapman made 27 saves to post the shutout for the Terriers as the Pistons outshot the Terriers 27-17. Roman Bengert took the loss for the Pistons.

Close to 1,400 fans were on hand for this big tilt in Portage last night, including a large contingent of Pistons fans that support this team, as always.

It was a bitter defeat and devastating loss for the Pistons, who finished first in the regular season standings while the Terriers were fifth. Tears were shed by the Piston players at the final buzzer, at the finality of the moment as this memorable season was over and this close group of players will disperse, some may never see each other again.

But there is was no shame in losing to the Terriers, who have been outstanding in the post-season, and were deserving victors.

Pistons’ coach Paul Dyck said they just couldn’t respond after Portage scored the first goal, “we just went a little  flat.”

Mackenzie Graham, the Pistons sparkplug and leading scorer was injured during the game and although he did return and was used sparingly, Dyck said it was another factor in their inability to get back into the game.

Also, a depleted blue line was a factor. “Fatigue set in as the game went on as we were short on the back end.”

“In the end,” said Dyck, “we just weren’t able to get our game to the level we played at during the regular season and the level of play we expected  of ourselves.”

The Terriers, the two-time defending champions, will now meet the OCN Blizzard in the MJHL championship series.