The defending RBC Cup champion Portage Terriers opened the 2016 Crescent Point Energy Western Canada Cup (WCC) with a disciplined 2-1 win over the SJHL Canalta Cup champion Melfort Mustangs at Affinity Place on Saturday afternoon.
“They defended hard,” said Mustangs head coach and general manager Trevor Blevins. “They really took away our time and space and, I thought, off the forecheck and even when we did get some possession they were really hard on pucks. We just tried to use our point man, tried to involve everyone in the offensive zone, but like I said they defended hard and kept us to the outside. I thought we didn’t do very well here in the hard areas of the rink, in front of the net and in the corners.”
Before 778 fans, which seemed to be split down the middle among their hockey allegiances between the clubs, Terriers’ Canadian Junior Hockey League rookie-of-the-year candidate Nick Henry quickly got his team on the scoreboard 5:34 in when he poked a puck five-hole on Mustangs goalie Richard Palmer. Despite good pressure by Melfort through the remaining 15 minutes of the first, they were not able to generate many quality scoring chances on Terriers netminder Nathan Park.
Terriers’ defenceman Brett Orr made it 2-0 a little under three minutes into the second on the power play when he blasted a shot from the point through a screen that went glove side on Palmer. SJHL playoff MVP Travis Mayan brought the Mustangs back to within one 55 seconds later on a tip-in off a defected pass out front, but the team’s offensive pressure dried up after that point. Melfort only managed five shots on net in the second period and just three in the third.
“That first game is always going to be a bit of a slower messier game just because of the bus legs,” said Orr, whose team went 12-1 in the MJHL playoffs and captured their second straight Turnbull Cup on April 22 with a five-game victory over the Steinbach Pistons. “We had moments where we really liked our game, but I think there are still lots of stuff we have to improve on being more consistent throughout the 60.”
Blake Spiller, head coach and general manager of the Terriers, said they are not an experienced team having only four members from last year’s championship squad (Brad and Shawn Bowles, Orr and Dean Stewart) competing with them. However, he said they do have great leaders and everyone seemed to get better as the game went on.
“Last year we didn’t have anyone who had been to this before, it was kind of fresh, but just having a few guys is pretty big I thought just showing the other guys what is going to happen,” said Orr. “If you get down don’t kill yourself over it or whatever, just keep playing your game.”
Blevins said the WCC is a long nine-day tournament and as long as they take care of business, respond to the challenge and earn a spot in Saturday’s medal round they’ll be all right. He said they have some experience from competing in this tournament last year and making it to the RBC Cup and they need to learn from their mistakes against Portage to give themselves a similar chance in Estevan.
“Every opponent is going to be very good,” said Blevins. “Everyone is a champion and the Estevan Bruins are fairly skilled and loaded this year too, so you just can’t take half a period off or any time off in this kind of event. It’s going to hurt you and I really thought at different times we really weren’t consistent today and we had some great shifts no doubt, we had some pressure, but we just didn’t keep the pedal down when we needed to.”
