The Portage Collegiate Saints fell 1-0 Wednesday in a shootout against the J.H. Bruns Broncos in their quarterfinal series. This now ties the best-of-three affair at 1-1.

Despite some decent chances, the Saints were unable to capitalize on any of their 36 shots taken in this game. In their own end, Hailey Dayholos stood tall as she also kept every shot out of the back of the net for all three periods and overtime, including a few breakaway/partial breakaway chances.

With that being the case, the game proceeded to the shootout where Lexy Plouffe scored the opener after making a few moves to get Dayholos out of position. After both teams missed two more shots it was up to Rhiannon Ice to keep the game going and she fired a hard shot looking to go between the pad and blocker of the Broncos goaltender, unfortunately for PCI, it was stopped. This brought us the final score of 1-0.

Head coach Jo-Anne Clark-Gillespie reflects on the outing.

"We can't ask for anything different when it comes to the effort," says Clark-Gillespie. "Even going 0-for(3) on the shootout, all three shots were good, they all made the goalie make a save so that's all you can ask. Their first goal on the shootout was an amazing goal, that girl had great hands. So, they deserved the win there and they battled hard. That's the nice thing (for us) about winning game one, you have that extra life. The season's not over, the season's not lost so we told the girls not to have their heads down or anything."

Clark-Gillespie also talks about an area they could've been a bit better in.

"There really isn't much more we could've done differently, other than trying to get a goal. Their goalie played extremely well," says Clark-Gillespie. "One thing that maybe could be improved upon is we're getting those initial shots but we're not driving the net hard enough for rebounds. They're there. We talked to the girls after the first period about getting those shots off quicker and earlier for the possibility of a rebound but then those other girls have to go hard to the net."

The 'do-or-die' game three will take place Friday, February 28th at Southdale Community Centre in Winnipeg with puck drop set for 4:30.