The visiting Portage Islanders scored three goals in the second period en route to a 5-2 win over the Notre Dame Hawks in game one of the South Eastern Manitoba Hockey League's best-of-seven final series Wednesday night.

"It was huge to tie it up at the end of the first period. Mitch (Wiebe) shut the door and make some big saves for us," explained Islanders' captain Anders Strome. "We were able to rally off of that, get some timely goals, get a lead, and kind of didn't look back from there."

It all started 12:34 into the opening period when Mitch Chanel slid home the puck to put the home Hawks up 1-0. Denis Delaquis and Paul Chanel picked up the helpers on the goal. With only eight seconds remaining in the period Eric Delong found a loose puck and found the back of the net with a backhand to tie the game at one after twenty minutes of play. 

"I thought we had a good forty or fifty minutes. There was about a ten minute period where the entire team had a bit of a lull. I know the boys can pick that up and we can even this series," said Notre Dame goaltender Brett Timmerman. 

Zack and brother Tanner Waldvogel both found the back of the net in the middle frame for Portage, while Strome picked up his first of two in the contest after converting on a 2-on-1 with Eric Delong. After forty minutes of play, the visiting team led 4-1. 

"Delonger (Eric Delong) made a heck of a play and the puck was just kind of bouncing and I was lucky enough to get a piece of it and it trickled into the net," said Tanner. "It was more of a Delong goal than me, but I'll take it."

Notre Dame would shorten the Islanders lead by one with a Justin Dalebozik goal roughly four minutes into the third. Down by two and electing to pull the goaltender for the extra attacker opened up the cage for Strome, who scored his second of game one to put the game out of reach with :44 seconds left to play for Notre Dame. 

Brett Timmerman made 27 saves in the loss for the Hawks, while Mitch Wiebe took the win after a 32 save performance.

Game two of this series goes Thursday night in Portage with puck drop at 8:15 p.m. 

"It will be a different game in Portage. It's a bigger ice surface over there. We have some young guys with some wheels. We'll look to use a bit more of our speed tomorrow, but it's not going to be easy. We'll look to put on a better show tomorrow," said Hawks' coach Rick Prejet.