Injuries left the Portage Terriers with a short bench full of forwards last night, and it cost them.

The Terriers fell 4-2 to Dauphin last night at the PCU Centre with 10 forwards and 6 defense, two of which were forwards filling spots of the back-end.

Ty Enns opened the scoring in an exciting first period where the Terriers controlled the play for the better part of 15 minutes. The shots on goal were 15-4 for Portage at the end of the first, but they couldn't slip one more past the Dauphin netminder. "If we would've got one more when we were up 1-nothing I think it could've been a different game," says Assistant Coach Paul Harland. "When it was 3-2 I thought we had some more chances, Leipsic had 3-or-4 chances and we just couldn't score. We get one of those and we've got a shot to win the hockey game."

Ty Enns in a fight toward the end of the game.

Dauphin came out hard in the second period and former Terrier Keaton Leininger tied the game at 1. They kept pouring the pressure on the Terriers and it paid off on the powerplay when they took a one-goal lead. Portage would tie things up a few minutes later, and again, it was Ty Enns. This time he found himself on a breakaway thanks to a line-to-line pass through the neutral zone from Chase Brakel and buried one upstairs glove-side. The Terriers had a little stumble on the powerplay later in the frame and another former Terrier lit the lamp for the Kings. This time it was recently traded Ashton Clark, who's goal would stand as the game-winner.

Energy levels were low for the Terriers in the 3rd, and the ice was starting to look tilted in Dauphin's favour. The Kings added one more late in the frame to end the Terriers chance of a comeback.

"I thought all-in-all we gutted it out," says Harland. "We played a hard game and in the end, we couldn't get it done, but overall with the work ethic we were pretty happy with how the guys played.

Forward-turned-defenseman Kelby Picard speaks to his performance on the back-end.

"I played it a bit in bantam but I'm mostly a forward, I was kind of thrown into it but I accepted the challenge. The second period was a little bit rough but I thought I had a decent first. It was a tough adjustment for sure.

The Terriers have a day to rest up before making the trip to Dauphin for a rematch Friday night.

Former Terriers Play Big Role

Kings' forwards Ashton Clark and Keaton Leininger combined for a big 5 points for the kings. Leininger had a goal and an assist, while Clark finished the night with a goal and 2 assists. They both lead the Kings in points.

For the complete box score CLICK HERE.