MANITOBA JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
rest of the series.
“I felt more and more confident as the series went on,” Chapman
explained. “I was seeing the puck, feeling the puck.”
And to think, he wasn’t even guaranteed to start after his showing
in the first two games. But Jim Tkachyk, the Terriers’ goalie coach,
lobbied successfully to have the Airdrie, Alberta product start in
net for Game 3 of the series.
Chapman carried the Terriers
through from there.
“He was our MVP for sure. He
couldn’t have played any bet-
ter over the last four games,”
said forward Ty Enns. “There’s
not much else I can say about
it. He was our MVP for sure.”
The Terriers are now more
than just champions. The
2016-17 team is now part of
something bigger: A dynasty.
Winning three straight champi-
onships is a feat accomplished
only twice before in the MJHL in the post-Memorial Cup Era. The
Selkirk Steelers won three straight titles from 1974-76 and the OCN
Blizzard won a staggering five straight Turnbull Cups from 1999-
2003.
The Terriers are now part of that club. But if you look back a little
further, beyond the past three triumphs, they’re in a class of their
own. Since 2008, the Terriers have won seven Turnbull Cups. That’s
seven championships in 10 seasons. That old saying winning breeds
winning seems to apply to the Portage Terriers.
“Our guys over the past few years have learned from guys be-
fore,” Spiller said. “I don’t know how important it is, but it just seems
like the guys that have won before seem to do the right things at
the right times. They relax at the right times. They dig in at the right
times.
“They just seem to have a little
bit more of a calming effect on how
things are going.”
A winning culture looks to be in
place. Josh Martin, the 2016-17
MJHL playoff MVP, experienced it.
The 20-year-old forward was ac-
quired by Portage at the Canadian
Junior Hockey League trade dead-
line in January after spending three
seasons with the Swan Valley Stam-
peders.
The biggest difference he no-
ticed?
“You don’t hope to win, you expect to win,” Martin said. “I’m a
20-year-old and I was learning lots from 18-year-olds in the dress-
ing room. They knew what it took to win. I just tried to follow those
guys.”
The team to beat. Front-runners. Favourites. Words mistakenly not
used to describe the 2016-17 MJHL champions. But certainly ones
that will be used to describe 2017-18 Portage Terriers. n
The last couple of years
we had older guys. We seemed to
be a mature group pretty much
throughout it all. This year it
seemed like we all kind of matured
at the right time in each series
THE TERRIERS LEADING SCORER JEREMEY LEIPSIC
2016-17 MANITOBA JUNIOR
HOCKEY LEAGUE CHAMPIONS
TURNBULL TROPHY WINNERS
16 GAME ON
2017 CHAMPIONS EDITION
PORTAGE CAPTAIN RILEY THIESSEN
AND THE TURNBULL TROPHY
1. Kurtis Chapman G)
4. Layne Toder
5. Carter McMurdo
7. Kain Stevenson
8. Spencer Kuhlman
9. Nick Doyle
10. Takato Cox
11. Turner Santin
12. Ryan Hendrix
13. Ryan Sokoloski
14. Jared Roy
15. Josh Martin
16. Aidan Buhler
17. Mackenzie Dwyer
18. James McIsaac
19. Ty Enns
20. Riley Thiessen
21. Chase Brakel
22. Brendan Kochanski
23. Jeremey Leipsic
24. Scott Mickoski
27. Ty Barnstable
29. Cody Thompson
35. Brock Aiken
TERRIERS
THE PORTAGE TERRIERS