Voyageurs 4 MacEwan Griffins 1
The sixth week of the 2011-12 ACAC hockey season had the Voyageurs playing a home and home series with the MacEwan Griffins.
Last weekend the Voyageurs enjoyed a win and a tie against the Briercrest Clippers.
This weekend the Voyageurs were looking to sweep the Griffins and take a commanding lead in the race for the last two ACAC playoff spots.
The game was the first meeting of the regular season between these two teams.
They did play two exhibition games with both teams winning in the other team’s rink.
Last season, the Griffins had missed the playoffs for the third straight year.
Last year’s Voyageur’s regular season record against the Griffins was 2-1-1.
On Friday night, one of the key points to the evening’s matchup would be the Voyageurs commitment to outwork the Griffins.
The game of hockey is also about winning the one-on-one battles that take place throughout the game.
The team that wins the most of those battles usually wins the game.
The Voyageurs needed not only a solid work ethic tonight but they needed to compete hard all over the ice.
Both teams knew the importance of the first goal and the momentum that it would provide for the team scoring it.
Then at 9:03 of the first period, the Voyageur’s scored that all important first goal to take a 1-0 lead.
It was only the second time in 11 games that the Voyageurs had scored the first goal of a game.
The goal was scored by left winger Blair Hawes (#8) scoring his first goal of the season with assists going to center Jory Geddes (#28) and right winger Matt Gray (#12).
For most part, the period was evenly played with both teams getting 12 shots on net but that was it for scoring in the first period.
Both teams had one powerplay opportunity but were unable to capitalize on their powerplay.
Between the first and second period, I went over our penalty killing as I felt we weren’t being aggressive enough in out pressuring the Griffin’s powerplay in our defensive end.
I actually wanted the Voyageur’s penalty killers to pick up the tempo and not sit back as much as they were allowing the Griffins to set-up their powerplay too easily.
Then at 5:11 of the second period, forward Cody Mapes (#14) scored his first goal of the season.
This was Mapes first game back since a high ankle sprain had forced him out of the line-up for two weeks.
Assists went to right winger Dan Usiski (#13) and defenseman Gii Kakegabon (#25).
That’s the way the second period would end with the Voyageurs leading 2-0.
Both teams had ten shots with the Griffins going 0-2 on the powerplay.
The Voyageurs had one powerplay opportunity and were unable to score with the man advantage.
During the fifteen minute break I talked to the team about puck management.
We needed to cut down on our giveaways in our defensive zone and make better decisions with the puck.
Instead of panicking with the puck we needed to hold on to the puck and show more confidence in their ability to make the right choice when it came to puck movement.
The defensemen needed to get their feet moving and make simple ten foot outlet passes.
We also needed our forwards to skate deeper into their defensive zone thus helping to support their defensemen more efficiently.
Then at 12:30 of the third period, the Voyageurs took a 3-0 lead when Geddes scored his fifth goal of the season.
Assists went to Hawes and Gray.
This was the team’s third even strength goal of the game.
The Griffins finally got on the board with a goal midway through the period to cut the Voyageurs lead to two goals.
The Voyagers were able to overcome any thought of a comeback by the Griffins when they scored their fourth goal of the game.
It came at 4:02 on a breakaway goal scored by Cory Giroux with his team leading, seventh goal of the year.
The Voyageurs hoped that this goal would be “the icing on the cake” and take the fight out of the Griffins.
However, a minute later the MacEwan Griffins managed to get another goal making the game closer than it needed to be.
During the game the Voyageur players had missed multiple opportunities to increase their lead on the Griffins but somehow the puck always managed to stay out of the Griffins net.
The Voyageurs outshot the Griffins 10-8 in the third period and 32-30 over the course of the game.
Both teams failed to score on their powerplay opportunities.
Goaltender Kyle Birch (#29) went the distance for the Voyageurs and won his second game as a Voyageur.
As of late, three of the Voyageur’s centermen; Popowich, Geddes and Giroux have been on fire the last three games in the face-off circle.
They have won an average of 70% of their face-offs which is outstanding.
What that does is give the team immediate possession of the puck and the team that has the puck the most usually wins the game
The “ACAC Player of the Game Award” for the Voyageurs was Blair Hawes who had a goal and an assist for two points and was a plus one in the game.
The “Coach’s Award” went to goaltender Kyle Birch as he was solid in the net making some huge key saves that allowed the team win this game.
Voyageurs 6 MacEwan Griffins 3
After the first game, you could see and hear that the previous night’s win felt great for all the players.
This weekend series against the MacEwan Griffins was going to be two of the biggest games of the year for the Voyageurs and they had just won the first one.
They also knew that they could play better and that tonight they had to win the game if they wanted to remain in total control of their team goal.
That goal is to finish as high as possible in the ACAC standings and make the playoffs for a fourth straight year.
The Voyageurs team had been playing much better and the one thing they didn’t want to do was play down to the skill level of the Griffins.
The Voyageurs had done that in the first game against Briercrest the weekend before.
They had found themselves down 4-0 before rebounding and tieing the game 5-5 which was an amazing come-back.
Just prior to the bus leaving for Edmonton, the team had received some bad news when they learned that the team’s top scorer, Cory Giroux would be out of the line-up for the game.
Giroux had a bad case of the flu and would be unable to make the road trip.
As bad as we would have loved to have Giroux in the line-up the team had faced adversary on many occasions this season and this was just another challenge for the team.
One consolation was that the team was now healthy back on defense but the team was still short at the forward positions with forwards Richard Cameron, Gabe Gardipy, and Vince Ouellette out with injuries.
The team arrived safely in Edmonton and the team off-loaded the bus prior to the game.
Soon after our arrival I was informed that the stick bag, with all the right-handed sticks, hadn’t been loaded onto the bus and that it was still back at the Bold Center in the Voyageur’s dressing room.
All we had was the stick bag with the left sticks and a couple of rights sprinkled into the mix; now what do we do as we have seven right handed players?
There was no time to dwell on this predicament as the warm-ups were fifteen minutes away.
So our equipment manager Joel McAnally and the newly hired Portage College Athletics Supervisor, Jim Knight quickly jumped into the equipment manager’s car and sped off to the nearest Sport Chek and purchased a dozen right-handed sticks.
Everything worked out okay as Sport Chek was having a great sale and we got a great deal on the one-piece sticks.
After all of this was out of the way now came the time to concentrate solely on the task at hand and winning the game.
The game started sloppy for both teams and both goaltenders had to make some tough saves to keep the game tied at zero.
You can talk to any knowledgeable hockey expert and they will tell you that good offense starts with good defense.
To start this game, I thought we weren’t getting the type of defensive play that we needed to give the Voyageurs a chance to win the game.
We needed to simplify the game plan and revert to basic hockey 101.
That is to do all the little things right which would result in everything else falling into place.
Little things as tape-to-tape ten foot passes by all the players, smart chips off the boards, quick puck movement up-ice by the forwards and then getting the puck deep into the Griffins defensive zone, crisp outlet passes by the defensemen and finally playing a sound disciplined style of hockey.
Once again the opposition scored the first goal of the game but before the first period was over the Voyageurs were up 2-1.
Scoring the first goal of the game for the Voyageurs was Captain Dustin Popowich (#9) from defensemen Rod Bouchard (#24) and Gii Kakegabon (#24).
Bouchard had just returned into the line-up after missing a week due to a deep cut to his pinky finger that had been stitched up but then ripped open again, when he tried to play.
Then Bouchard scored the Voyageurs second goal of the game, his first goal of the season, with a quick snap shot from the point on the Voyageur’s powerplay.
The shot had fooled the Griffin’s goaltender as he didn’t realize how fast Bouchard’s shot was travelling and reacted too late as the puck hit the upper right corner of the net.
Assists went to Geddes and Hawes.
Even with the Voyageur’s team struggling in that first period the team still found a way to take a 2-1 lead going into the second period.
That’s a sign of a good team beginning to evolve into something special.
The shots were 10-10 with the Voyageurs going 1-5 on the powerplay while the Griffins went 1-5 as well.
The Voyageur team’s suspect decision making, lack of competitiveness and undisciplined penalties in the first period were the main focus in the coach’s chalk talk.
The team needed to play smarter, use their team’s speed more effectively and shoot every chance they had.
The second period saw the Griffins tie the game, 2-2, on a powerplay goal of their own just three minutes into the period.
But a great effort by Matt Gray thirteen seconds later gave the Voyageurs the lead once more; 3-2.
The assists went to Geddes and Hawes.
Before the period was over Geddes with his sixth goal of the season gave the Voyageurs a two goal cushion.
The only assist on Geddes goal went to Gray.
However, a minute later MacEwan scored on their powerplay again to close the gap to within one goal once again.
Then with 3:19 left in the second period Gray scored his second goal of the game, on the powerplay to give the Voyageurs a 5-2 lead.
Assists went to Geddes and Popowich.
The Griffins outshot the Voyageurs 15-11 in the period.
The Voyageurs went 1-7 on their powerplay while the Griffins went 1-5.
The third period was a wide open period with both teams giving everything they had.
It was late in the third period, with the score still at 5-2, when Gray scored his hat-trick goal of the game, on the powerplay, to give the Voyageurs a four goal lead; 6-2.
The assists went to Geddes and Popowich.
Geddes assist on the play gave him five points for the evening on one goal and four assists.
Then just forty seconds later MacEwan scored an even strength goal, cutting the Voyageurs lead to three; 6-3.
Geddes line had combined for eleven points in this game and 17 points over the two games.
In addition to Geddes five points, Gray finished the game with three goals and an assist for four points and Hawes added up with two assists.
The Griffins outshot the Voyageurs 16-15 in the period for a game total of 41-39.
The Griffins went 3-14 while the Voyageurs went 3-16.
The “ACAC Player Game Award” went to Matt Gray for his hat-trick and four points in the game.
Due to nagging injuries Gray has had to alter his physical style of play which has also allowed him to stay out of the penalty box.
Now he is being rewarded by playing a lot of minutes with two very good players and contributing to team offensively.
The “Coach’s Player Award” went to Blair Hawes who may not had as many points as Gray or Geddes but is the catalyst that makes that line look like they’ve been together for years.
He compliments the other two player’s skills to create a very strong offensive threat every time the three of them are on the ice.
Hawes relentless forechecking pressure and work ethic is contagious as he leads the way by example.
Teamed up with Geddes and Gray they also do a great job defensively as both Hawes and Geddes are the top two plus/minus players on the team.
All-in-all, with all the team’s injuries hampering the team’s progress, I feel the team has done an astounding job.
I don’t feel that the Voyageurs have reached their full potential yet which bodes well for the second semester.
It’s a good sign when everything they have gone through that the Voyageur’s team can still come away with four wins and two ties for 10 points and sit in 5th place in the ACAC league.
The players are still getting use to each other as there are a lot of new faces in this year’s line-up.
The team chemistry is better than it’s ever been; as the players truly like each other and play for each other.
The team will continue to improve and hopefully reach the team goal of being one of the top four teams in the ACAC league.
This year’s Voyageurs are going to be an exciting team to watch as they have the skill and determination to be a very good team.
They are a highly skilled group of young men that can also play a physical style.
Next weekend’s matchup against the Nait Ooks will be a battle for fourth place in the ACAC Hockey League.
