The 2018-19 MJHL regular season opens tonight, and Portage Terriers are in action.

The Dogs travel east to Winnipeg, where they'll face the Blues.

Terriers' Assistant Coach Paul Harland acknowledges opening night can be unpredictable.

"I thought we played pretty good in exhibition," he says, "And especially our last game, we were able to get lots of goals, and keep them from scoring. It's going to be new for a lot of guys, so we're just going to go in there and hopefully play with good energy, keeping things pretty simple, working hard, and see what happens."

Harland understands some of the new players will be nervous heading into the game.

"You want to get everybody involved in the game early," he says, "Get your first shift out of the way, and then once that's done, after we have all four lines in the game, then it's just play as you normally would, and try and execute as best you can."

Harland says they'll depend on returning veterans to step up this season.

"Ty Barnstable's our captain, and he's been around for two and a half years, so we're going to rely heavily on him to help guide these guys," he says, "Scott Mickoski's been with us for a couple of years, and we're looking to him to be one of the leaders, and help out with the young guys. Reilly Funk played with us for 30 games, so he's going to be involved in helping guys. And then the other guys have all played at a high level, so we're hoping that everybody matures, and figures out how we want to play."

Puck drop tonight's at 7 o'clock. You'll hear the action starting with the pre-game show at 6:50 on CFRY, portageonline.com, or the portagelive app.