The Steinbach Pistons lost to the Portage Terriers 5-2, Saturday evening at Stride Place.
The Pistons got into penalty trouble early as Braden Birnie got a slashing penalty just 43 seconds into the game and Nolan Bettens got a double minor for kneeing 5 minutes into the game. The PK however, got to work and managed to kill them all off.
The Pistons opened the scoring at the 12:24 mark of the first period as Braden Birnie scored his first as a Piston on the powerplay putting in the rebound. Quinton Pepper and Eduard Wruck got the assists on the play.
The Portage Terriers would answer back 3-minutes later with a powerplay goal of their own as Brenden Holba scored from Brandon McCartney and Daron Cyr.
The Terriers took the lead a minute and half later as Hayden Lacquette’s shot from the point got past Pistons goaltender Will Hambley.
The Pistons went into the first intermission down 2-1 with the shot totals 13-8 in favour of Steinbach.
Portage got to work quickly in the second period, extending their lead to 3-1, two and half minutes into the period with Brandon Funk getting the goal.
The Terriers would go on to score two powerplay goals within a minute as Slade Stanick and Tyler Dodgson got the goals, making the game 5-1.
Things started to get a bit chippy in the second period as emotions started to set in. A scrum happened in front of the Terriers net as a Pistons player was pushed into the net. Offsetting roughing penalties were handed out and the Pistons got an extra 2 minutes for an unsportsmanlike.
Midway through the second period after the Pistons called a timeout Simon Harkness got the call and went in net for Steinbach.
At the end of the second period the Terriers were up 5-1 with the shot totals 27-17 for the Pistons.
The third period saw the Pistons get the lone goal as Zach Power scored his first as a Piston off a cross crease pass from Davin Griffin.
The game ended with a few scrums, seeing Hayden Lacquette and Cooper Rice both getting 10-minute misconducts and hitting the showers early.
The final score was 5-2 with the Pistons outshooting the Terriers 36-24. Simon Harkness turned away all shots he faced after coming into the game.