The Winnipeg Blues are back in town again tonight for Manitoba Junior Hockey League action after beating the Portage Terriers Sunday in a shootout at Stride Place.

"We were on the penalty kill for a lot of that game but we had a lot of chances to close it out. We just didn't get it done defensively and that was the problem," says Terriers forward Ryan Sokoloski.

The season series is now at 3-1 in favour of the Dogs. They'll need to string a few wins together if they want to leap over OCN in the standings to have a shot at hosting a playoff series.

"We can expect Winnipeg to be physical again," says defenceman Kain Stevenson. "They're usually a pretty fast team ... We just need to make sure we bury our chances tonight and use our speed. If we do that we should be fine."

STANDINGS GLANCE

The Blizzard are in fourth with 63 points while Portage sits fifth with 60, and two games in hand. The Blues are only nine points back of the Terriers in sixth place. Portage is five points back of third place Selkirk and nine back of Winkler in second.

"Every game is big from this point on, We're eight points behind Winkler and battling with them for that home ice advantage. So every point we can get is big," says Stevenson on their push for the playoffs. "We think we can do it. Our schedule does look pretty tough this month but if we use our speed and play our game I think we can do well."

Tonight's game starts at 7:30 p.m. at Stride Place.