The Virden Oil Capitals kicked off their Manitoba Junior Hockey League preseason schedule with a rookie game Tuesday night against the Terriers in Portage.

The Caps gave up three unanswered third period goals and lost 4-3 to the Terriers.

Benoit Mowbray scored the winner with 34 seconds left.

Virden native Montana Masson added a pair of goals for Portage.

Replying for the Oil Capitals were John Patmore, Tony Haley and Ben Dalke.

Patmore scored 2:23 into the second period.

Haley scored with 28 seconds left in the middle frame and Dalke found the back of the net 1:53 into the third.

Dalke's goal gave Virden a 3-1 lead.

"I thought we had a decent game," said Oil Capitals head coach Troy Leslie. "Obviously it wasn't the ending we wanted to have but we can learn from that as well."

"They took it to us in the early part of the game and then I thought we responded well in the second half of the first period. We were pretty good through the second period and kind of let it get away in the end of the third. We saw a lot of positive things out there tonight."

Leslie said he was pleased to see a number of players take their game up a notch.

"Some guys stepped up and made it look like they deserved to be around a little longer. We've got six more exhibition games left so we want to make sure we have enough bodies around. There's some more evaluation to go and we've just got to take it one game at a time. A lot of guys know that scenario - they know they're fighting for a job here and every game is important."

The Oil Capitals next exhibition game is Saturday at home against the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's Estevan Bruins.