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Host Terriers dominating early on Road to RBC Cup

Portage tops MJHL standings and national rankings

Jason La Rose
|
October 21, 2014
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With one month gone on the Road to the RBC Cup, the Portage Terriers have turned the Manitoba Junior Hockey League into their own personal playground, running roughshod over MJHL competition early in the 2014-15 season.

The 2015 RBC Cup hosts hit the one-month mark of their season Oct. 19 with a 4-3 overtime win over the Dauphin Kings, improving their record to an unblemished 14-0-0.

But it isn’t just that the Terriers have won every game, it’s how they’ve won.

The extra-time victory over the Kings was just the third one-goal game of the year for the Terriers, who have outscored their opponents 78-24, winning by an average of just under four goals per game.

Portage’s +54 goal differential is far and away the MJHL’s best; the 8-1-3 Winnipeg Blues are second at +19.

The Terriers were dominant right from the first drop of the puck on Sept. 19; it took just 11 seconds for Jordyn Boyd to score the first goal of the season, and Portage scored five times in the first period of what would finish as a 9-0 season-opening win over the Virden Oil Kings.

That was the first of four wins by at least six goals in the team’s first nine games.

The PCU Centre has been home sweet home for the Terriers, who are 7-0 in their building, scoring 40 goals while allowing just 10, although a 7-0 road record and GF-GA ratio of 38-14 isn’t too bad, either.

Portage’s perfect start has pushed it to a six-point cushion over the second-place Winkler Flyers in the MJHL standings (with a game in hand), but that’s not the only list the Terriers currently sit atop.

After finding itself at No. 4 in the preseason CJHL national rankings, Portage temporarily dropped to seventh spot for a week before rising to No. 1 on Oct. 6, a position it continues to hold.

Not surprisingly, the MJHL’s top 20 scorers include more than a few Terriers, with Zack Waldvogel (10-13—23), Boyd (12-10—22) and Brad Bowles (3-18—21) holding down the top three spots.

In all, seven Portage skaters are in the top 20, including Tyler Jeanson (10th, 16 points), Taylor Friesen (12th, 15 points), Shawn Bowles (14th, 14 points) and captain Tanner Jago (18th, 13 points).

The Terriers have spread around the scoring in the early going, with six players averaging at least a point a game through 14 games, and 10 having already hit double digits.

“It’s tough to go on a long streak like this so I think we’re getting good contributions from everyone,” head coach Blake Spiller told the Portage Daily Graphic after the overtime win over Dauphin.

In goal, the dynamic duo of Talor Joseph and Justin Laforest are among the league leaders in every major statistical category, with Joseph leading the way in wins (seven), goals-against average (1.41) and save percentage (.935).

When the 2015 RBC Cup begins on May 9, it will mark the second time the Terriers will host Canada’s National Junior A Championship, but the first time it will be played in Portage la Prairie, Man.

In 1973, when the national championship was still a best-of-seven series between east and west champions, the Terriers beat the Pembroke Lumber Kings in five games to win their lone national title; the first three games of the series were played in Brandon, Man., with the final two held at Winnipeg Arena.

For more information:

Esther Madziya
Manager, Communications
Hockey Canada

(403) 284-6484 

[email protected] 

Spencer Sharkey
Manager, Communications
Hockey Canada

(403) 777-4567

[email protected]

Jeremy Knight
Manager, Corporate Communications
Hockey Canada

(647) 251-9738

[email protected]

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