The Portage Islanders battled the Warren Mercs in SEMHL action Friday night. The Islanders came into the game just four points back of the third-place Mercs.

The Islanders held the Mercurys to just a single goal in the first but struggled mightily to put any offence together. Warren controlled play for much of the period.

It was more of the same in the second, however. Warren would increase their lead to two by completing a perfect two on one play. Again, the Islanders struggled to find rhythm in their game with Warren's strong neutral zone play limiting the number of chances that the Islanders could get in transition. Before the second was over, the Mercs would notch one more, giving them a three-goal lead heading into the third period.

In the third, the Mercs strong play continued, stymying the Islanders consistently. After going down 4-0 however they would finally break the goose egg off one of the Mercs few mistakes. Dan Leslie took a beautiful breakout pass and shot up the ice on a breakaway. He deked out the goalie and went top shelf on the backhand. That was all they would get as the Mercurys would come out on top 4-1.

After the game, Coach Landon Thomson had this to say about his team's play,

"I think we played, I don't really want to say good hockey because it wasn't. We made a lot of mistakes and it hurt us in the end. I think we're a good team but we're not really showing it right now but hoping we'll pick it up soon here."

The Islanders are back in action on Dec. 28th when they head to Morden to face the Redskins. Puck drop is 8:00 pm.