The Oil Caps dropped a 4-0 decision on Friday night in game two of the MJHL semifinals against the Portage Terriers.
Tundra Oil & Gas Place saw 1,342 fans in attendance on Friday to take in the second game of the Oil Caps and Terriers series. Virden came out hard in the first period and generated a power play opportunity early which saw some good chances to open the scoring. Unfortunately, the Oil Caps couldn’t capitalize on their man advantage and shortly after it was the Terriers who took advantage on their power play with a goal from Jordyn Boyd.
It was a tightly checked first period the rest of the frame until Grant Valiquette took advantage of a turn over at the Oil Caps blue line and made no mistake as he beat Oil Caps net minder, Sean Kuehn, to make it a 2-0 Terriers lead after 20 minutes of play.
The second continued with much of the same play as the fist. Portage controlled the play in the early going until Brett Orr got the puck on his stick in the slot who netted his first of the post-season to put the Terriers up 3-0.
Into the third, the play opened up a bit which led to the Oil Caps getting some grade A looks on goal, but still no one could beat the Terriers goalie, Justin Laforest. Virden outshot Portage 16-10 in the final frame, but gave up an empty net goal to Zack Waldvogel in the final minute to make it a 4-0 final. The final shots on goal ended at 30-30.
The series now shifts back to Portage on Sunday where the Oil Caps will try to find a way to get to the Terriers defense. The Terriers have held Virden scoreless in the series so far with Laforest continuing his shut out streak to 240:06 dating back into the Waywayseecappo series. Sunday’s contest is a 6:30 start in Portage with game four going in Virden on Tuesday night at 7:30.