Shawn Bowles nets three as the Portage Terriers beat the Neepawa Natives 5-1 tonight. Tyler Gutenburg was busy in net for Neepawa in a tight first period that saw no team find the back of the net.

Portage would open things up early in the second period scoring three quick goals. Shawn Bowles started it off on the power play, followed by Ryan Sokoloski within a minute. Bowles would get his second of the night a few minutes later tapping in a pass in front of the net.

Later in the second period Justin Metcalfe caught the puck in his feet for Neepawa and turned on the afterburners driving to the net. He flipped one up and over Josh Bykowski for the first and only Natives goal.

The play was controlled throughout by Portage which continued in the third period. Shawn Bowles finished off the hat trick, and Ryan Hendrix scored one up high for his tenth of the season.

Terrier head coach and GM Blake Spiller felt their game really picked up after the first.

"It's always a tough rink to seem to generate stuff in. Sometimes it just takes one to get in to get things going, and (we) seemed to get the momentum after that and I thought we played pretty sound after that."

The Terriers play again Sunday night at 6:30 at the PCU Centre against the Wolverines.