The Portage Terriers have picked up right where they left off last season, on a winning note. A brand new MJHL season is underway and the Dogs are hoping it will be one to remember. Not only is it the teams 50th year in the MJHL but they are also the three time defending champions with many of last years players back hoping to make it four.

A home and home series with the Winnipeg Blues wrapped up Sunday night at Stride Place and the fans went home happy following the home opener, a 6-2 victory for Portage. The Dogs blanked the Blues 4-0 in Winnipeg to kick off the new campaign Friday.

Sunday's game saw the Blues open the scoring just over 7 minutes into the match and that would be the only time they would lead. Rookie Reilly Funk who was born and raised in Portage scored his first MJHL goal 6 minutes later and was excited to get it done early. Going through the minor hockey system in this community Funk says he always wanted to play for the sqaud growing up.

It was the second period when the Terriers broke away. Daniel Mckitrick scored his first two as a Terrier 23 seconds apart and then James McIsaac would add a short handed marker making it 4-1 after 40 minutes. McIsaac would add another short handed marker in the third and then veteran Ryan Sokoloski found the back of the net a few minutes later. It looked like it would be a 6-1 final but the Blues would score with just 6 seconds on the clock.

Terrier head coach Blake Spiller was satisfied with how the weekend went. He felt netminder Brock Aiken was solid and that the rest of the team performed at a high level as well. Despite the two victories there are still several decisions to be made. The club is carrying 25 players and Spiller feels that's too many. He'd like to reduce that number by a few over the next week or two but noted everyone with the team deserves to be here so those decisions will not be easy to make.

The team should get a good test in their next game Wednesday night on home ice. Steinbach also opened the year with two wins and are expected to be a strong team once again this year. The Pistons won the regular season last year but were defeated by the Terriers in the second round of the playoffs.