The Winnipeg Blues grabbed their first lead of the Addison Division final series, shutting down the Terriers in the Dog Pound.

The two teams locked up for game three of the best-of-seven series last night at the PCU Centre and despite a good start, it was the Terriers who fell behind early. A Justin Slobozian giveaway led to Kyle Bodnaruk's first goal of the playoffs as the Blues forward snapped one past Shea Cooper less than five minutes into the game. Cooper was getting his first postseason start after missing the first six games of the playoffs due to injury. His return didn't get much better as the game wore on. Channing Bresciani's point shot found it's way through traffic midway through the frame, giving Winnipeg a 2-0 lead.

They stretched the lead to 3-0 at the 2:36 mark of the second when Jared Morris potted his 7th of the postseason. Former Terrier Dylan Kelly added another less than four minutes later to make it a 4-0 lead for the visiting Blues. That was the end of Shea Cooper's night as the South River, Ontario native was yanked in favour of Adam Iwan.


Shea Cooper's return to the ice lasted just over 30 minutes before he was pulled in favour of Adam Iwan.

The 18-year-old kept it a 4-0 game until the Blues put one past him on the powerplay. Kelly out-waited the sprawling netminder and put his second of the night to the top shelf, making it a 5-0 score. Winnipeg's Isiah Plett shut the door the rest of the way, earning the shutout with 19 saves.


Kajon McKay (#22) and Dylan Kelly (#19) were both rookies with the Terriers in 2008/2009. Now they find themselves on opposite ends of the ice in the Addison Division final.

The injury bug continues to hit the Terrier line-up. The team is still without Cody Kostecki who is out with a lower-body injury and last night, Mike Gemmill was held out of the game with an upper-body injury suffered in game two. He's expected to miss several weeks. Forward Brendon Fornwald says it's been a rough year for the team when it comes to injuries.

"It's tough," says the native of Lampman, Saskatchewan. "I don't know if we've all played together since I got here in December. It's part of adversity, it's part of a team. Sometimes you get the injury bug and sometimes you get a lucky year. This year we gotta fight through it. It can't be an excuse. It's playoffs."


Adam Iwan came on in relief in the second period and finished with 10 saves on 11 shots.

Game four will be a pivotal one in the series as it will either see Winnipeg go up three games to one or see the series knotted at two games apiece. Defenseman Yvan Pattyn says the formula for game four will be simple.

"We just gotta skate harder," says the second-year blue-liner. "We gotta battle harder and just play our game."

The Terriers and Blues drop the puck on game four tomorrow night at 7:30 pm at the MTS IcePlex in Headingley.