The Portage Terriers are in Steinbach tonight for their first meeting with the Pistons since last year's MJHL Championship Final.

The Dogs and Pistons are 2-0 this season, and are ranked 1 and 2 respectively in the first MJHL Power Ranking of the year. Terriers' Assistant Coach Paul Harland says the first year players will need to get accustomed to the Steinbach arena quickly.

"That environment can be a little bit daunting for the first year guys who've never played. It's tough, the neutral zone is small, so we'll have to make sure they get comfortable quick and we're able to play most of the game in their end if that's possible."

Out of 6 regular season meetings last year the Terriers took 5, and they also eliminated Steinbach in the the MJHL Championship in 5 games. Portage's returning forward Jeremy Leipsic's excited for their first visit to Steinbach since last year's championship. He says it's always a battle between strong teams.

Leipsic finds the back of the net last year against Steinbach

"Obviously I think it'll be a pretty good environment there, they always have good fans there. I think it'll be a fast game because both teams have good speed, and I think we'll have to use that to our advantage to be successful."

Terriers' Ashton Clark's had a great start to his MJHL career, notching 3 goals and 1 assist in his first 2 regular season games. He says every league has a small rink, and it's about modifying your game to fit the rink.

"The guys haven't told me much. They said it was a different rink, and it wasn't the best rink in the league, but we'll have to adapt to it. I know I'm used to a couple of crappy rinks in the SJHL so it's alright."

The Dogs and Pistons go at 7:30 tonight. You can catch the pregame show on CFRY and at Portage Online dot com at 7:20 p.m.