The Collingwood Blues dropped a heartbreaker — on a last-minute goal — to the host Portage Terriers on Wednesday night in Manitoba, but have punched their ticket to the Centennial Cup quarterfinals.
The Blues lost 4-3 Wednesday to the Terriers at the Canadian National Hockey League championship tournament; it was their first defeat after winning three straight games to start the tourney.
The game was a hard-fought battle that saw 17 penalty calls.
The first period was a nail-biter, with the Terriers scoring two goals within the first five minutes as Ryan Botterill (with assists by Austin Peters and Rory Neill) and Brock MacDonald (with an assist by Bryden Kiesman) struck early.
The Blues fought back with their first goal of the game by Spencer Young (with assists by Bryce Sutherland and Luke Tchor) at the 5:10 mark. The Terriers managed to score again at the 10:30 mark by Austin McLean (assisted by Kian Calder).
The Blues fought back strong in the second period, erasing a 3-1 deficit and knotting the score thanks to two goals from Carter Diceman (assisted by Owen Sclisizzi and Nathan Omeri).
However, the Terriers persevered in the third period with a late, back-breaking goal at the 19:40 mark by Ryan Botterill (assisted by Mike Stubbs and Kian Calder) to clinch the win.
Blues goalie Noah Pak made 36 saves in the narrow defeat. Terriers goalie Bailey Monteith had 40 saves.
The Blues will play Game 5 on Friday at 4:30 p.m. ET against the Ottawa Jr. Senators in the quarterfinal.
The series began May 11 and runs until May 21 at Stride Arena in Portage la Prairie, Man. The winner of the series will take home the Centennial Cup and be the 2023 Canadian National Hockey League champions.
The full Centennial Cup schedule, current stats and livestream game links can be found here.
