The Steinbach Pistons had their winning streak snapped on Saturday night as the Portage Terriers won 5-2 at Stride Place.

Portage struck twice in the first 5:14 of the game and quickly put the Pistons in a 2-0 hole. 

Combined with the two goals against, Steinbach turned the puck over 7 times in the first 7 minutes of the game.

The Pistons did get their feet moving towards the end of the period.

Brendan Westbrook got the puck in deep then fired a pass to Tyson McConnell who got a good hard shot away that was stopped but produced a big rebound that was found by Tanner Mole who buried a wrister for his 9th of the year to cut the lead to 2-1.

Steinbach's penalty killers were called upon to put in a massive effort late in the first.

Two calls at the same time put Steinbach down two men for a full two minutes.

Steinbach's penalty killers McConnell, Boedey Vaeth, Troy Williams, Tristan Culleton, Declan Graham and goalie Matt Radomsky held the fort for the entire two minutes and seemed like the Pistons would carry some momentum into the second period.

An early power play gave Steinbach a good opportunity to tie up the game, but despite some decent pressure, they were unable to find the back of the net.

Portage was able to hold on and cash in two more times towards the end of the period to increase the lead to 4-1 after 40 minutes.

Matt Lenz took the crease in the third in an attempt to kick the Pistons into gear.

It worked early in the period.

Westbrook got the play started as he dumped the puck in. The hardworking forward then busted his tail into the offensive zone, forced the Terriers defender to turn the puck over to Marcel Berube who dished the puck back to the point for a Caydin Cleland slapshot that was tipped home by Westbrook for his third goal of the year.

Steinbach couldn't carry the momentum forward and the comeback was cut when the Terriers sealed the deal on a power play to make it 5-2.

As the clock wound down on Steinbach, forward Troy Beauchemin tried to jump start some energy for his team when he dropped the gloves with 20-year-old Braden Billany. Beauchemin held his down and gained a lot of respect from his bench.

Steinbach's power play finished 0-6 while the penalty kill was 6-7.

Matt Radomsky got saddled with the loss after surrendering 4 goals on 14 shots. Matt Lenz stopped 10 of 11.

Gettin' Back To Work

Steinbach won't see game action until Saturday night at home vs the OCN Blizzard.

That's plenty of time for head coach Paul Dyck to get his team back on the ice for practice. "We'll take (Sunday) off and get back to work Monday, " Dyck said from Portage after the game. "Monday we'll work. Tuesday will be a skills day. We'll take Wednesday off and get two good, hard practices in leading up to the game on Saturday."

A Bit Of A Break

A week ahead with no games leads into a busy following week for Steinbach.

Four games in 7 days starting Saturday night.

Vs OCN Blizzard Saturday night

Vs Virden Oil Capitals Sunday night

@ Portage Terriers Wednesday night

@ Dauphin Kings Sunday night - game on Mix 96 and SteinbachOnline.com