The Winkler Flyers young guns went toe-to-toe with the Portage Terriers rookies in a fast paced hard hitting affair this evening as the Flyers opened up their exhibition season with a 4-3 shoot-out loss to the defending MJHL Champions.

It was a quick moving game right from the opening face-off with this being the last chance for most of these players to impress their respective coaches. The Terriers lit the lamp first when Portage forward Riley Hay beat Flyers netminder Logan Marks just under 3 minutes into the first period. The Terriers added another one near the end of the period to go into the intermission up 2-0.

The second period started with as much jump as the first and at the 3:11 mark Brock Vanderveen would cut the visitors lead in half taking the behind the net feed from Jesse Bernard and fire it past Terriers goalie Brian Tait. The Flyers evened it up at 2 just a couple minutes later when Preston James barried the rebound home with Brock Genyk picking up the lone helper. The Terriers took the lead again midway through the 2nd frame and held a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes.

One of the stories of the third was the play of Flyers goalie Michael Deslauriers who replaced Marks midway through the 2nd and stopped all twenty shots he faced. Then with just over five minutes left in the period, Seth Ronsberg took over in the offensive zone and picked up the puck in the left side corner and carried it to the slot and wired a wrister top blocker to tie the game at 3.

With neither team able to score again in regulation both sides decided a shoot-out would decide it. Seth Ronsberg and Taylor Wells each rang their attempts off the post before Niko Digiovannantonio won the game for Portage.  

“We saw some good goaltending, a couple great shots, hit some cross bars and posts and stuff but overall it was really good,” said Flyers Head Coach and General Manager Mark Thiessen.

If this evenings rookie game was any indication, tomorrows annual intra-squad game should be a very exciting affair. The team will carry only 41 players into tomorrow as 14 more players were let go after tonights game. Thiessen says their numbers will be brought down to around 30 after Wednesday night as they prepare for their next exhibition game in Portage on Friday.

Again tickets for tomorrows intra-squad game are available at the door. Puck drop is 7:30.