Coming into this weekend ACAC hockey series both teams were looking for a sweep. The Briercrest Clippers without a point this season were looking to get back into the playoff race. The Voyageurs were hoping to bury any chances that Briercrest had of making the playoffs by making this weekend series into a seven point lead over the Clippers in the standings.
Prior to the series, in our Voyageur's team meeting, we all knew that the Briercrest Clippers would be a hungry team looking for their first win of the season. Our players were also made aware that they needed to play with the same focus, discipline, passion and work ethic as they displayed in the previous two weekends against Sait and Mount Royal University. The team needed the same type of effort and couldn't afford to play down to the Clippers level but that's exactly what happened.
The first period was only 1:18 minutes into the game when Briercrest scored their first goal.
The Voyageur's players on the ice looked very tentative and taken aback by the hard working Clippers team.
Then at the five minute mark, the Clippers took a two goal lead and you could see that the Voyageur's team just wasn't ready to play this game.
In pre-game discussions, with the team, about the importance of this weekend's games, the team had nodded affirmatively that they knew what they had to do this weekend and how important these two games were.
The team indicated that they were ready to play so their heads were nodding yes they understood.
In fact, it was obvious by the first few minutes of the first period that their subconscious mind hadn't seen the same urgency as the coach's had.
Three minutes later, after the Clipper's second goal, the Clippers scored again to take a 3-0 lead at which time I knew I had to stop the bleeding by making a goaltending change.
This had two benefits in that this move actually can act like a time-out.
The time it takes to change your goaltenders is about five minutes thus giving the rest of the team a chance to re-focus and get their game together.
Secondly, it would allow the coaching staff to see if goaltender Kyle Birch, who had been injured a month ago, was ready to play.
However, the goaltending change and time-out didn't seem to affect the Clippers as just six minutes later they scored again and went ahead 4-0.
On just ten shots the Clippers had four goals.
More times than not coming back from four goals is an insurmountable task to come back from.
The Voyageurs could have just thrown in the towel and given up.
But give credit to the Voyageur's team as they finally woke up and had realized the mental and physical mistakes that they had made in their preparation.
The Voyageurs never gave up and picked up the tempo of their game, scoring a late powerplay goal in the period.
Right winger Matt Gray (#12) scored his second goal of the year with assists going to left winger Blair Hawes (#8) and defenseman Brent Wilson (#4).
The first period ended up 4-1 for Briercrest with both teams going 1-1 on their powerplay.
The Voyageurs ended up out-shooting the Clippers 23-12 in the period.
My chalk-talk between the first and second period was brief and to the point as the players now realized their serious predicament.
Although they had generated a lot of shots towards the Clipper net the Voyageurs have continued to struggle at getting to rebound pucks all season.
To start the second period it looked like things would pick up when left winger Lukas Vepy (#20) scored his first goal of the game to bring the team within two goals of the Clippers.
Assists went to centerman Cory Giroux (#19) and right winger Dustin Popowich (#9).
On the scoring play Vepy had skated hard through the middle of the ice and towards the Clipper net.
Giroux skating with the puck along the boards, to the Clipper's goaltender's right, made a perfect pass to his driving teammate who deposited the puck into a wide open net.
The Briercrest Clippers though, refused to give in and scored another goal to take a 5-2 lead.
Even at 5-2, on the bench you could feel that the players knew that they could still win this game.
The players continued to fire a lot of pucks on the Clipper's goaltender but they just weren't being rewarded with a goal.
Then it seemed that the Clippers had put the last nail in the Voyageur's coffin when they supposedly scored their sixth goal of the game.
There had been a scramble in front of the Voyageur's goaltender Kyle Birch and then suddenly the referee pointed into the Voyageurs net signaling that the puck had crossed the goal line into the net even though it seemed that Kyle Birch actually had the puck in his catching glove.
This goal would have been a crushing blow for any chance of the Voyageurs coming back in this game.
However, after conferring with the two linesmen the referee waved off the goal.
As it turns out the referee had seen Kyle Birch's goalie stick knob in the net and had thought it was the puck plus a linesman had actually seen the puck enter Birch's catching glove.
The team had finally gotten a break.
Then halfway through the second period Lukas Vepy scored his second goal of the game and third of the season to bring the team within two goals of tieing the game.
The assists on the play went to Dustin Popowich and Blair Hawes.
As the second period was coming to an end Dustin Popowich scored the Voyageurs fourth goal to bring the team to within one goal of the Clippers.
Cory Giroux and Lukas Vepy received the assists on the goal.
The second period ended 5-4 in favor of the Briercrest Clippers.
In the second period, both teams failed to score on the powerplay and the Voyageurs had outshot the Clippers 14-9.
The third period saw a desperate Clipper's team clinging to a one goal lead as they continued to play hard and try to increase their lead.
Both teams had some great scoring chances but both the goaltenders made some brilliant saves.
Then it happened, at 16:40 of the third period, with time running out, defenseman Dan Usiski (#13) scored a powerplay goal with a hard blast from the blueline that went through a screened Clipper's goaltender and into the back of the net, to tie the game 5-5.
Assists went to Brent Wilson and Dustin Popowich.
With 3:20 still remaining on the clock in the third period, the Voyageurs did everything they could to get the winning goal but ran out of time.
The Voyageurs had gone 2-5 on their powerplay while the Clippers went 1-4.
In three periods of hockey the Voyageurs had outshot the Briercrest Clippers, 55-33.
Something worth noting is that the Voyageurs had 85 hits in this game.
A normal night would be between 30 and 40 hits so the players definitely played a physical game.
Why does that surprise me?
Due to a number of injuries, the team was only playing with nine forwards and five defensemen.
Also a number of the players dressed for the game were playing hurt or playing with the flu.
Under normal circumstances these players wouldn't have played.
That being said, in eleven years of my involvement with the ACAC, I have never seen such an amazing comeback as these Voyageurs players displayed in this game.
To even stay close in this game, never mind getting a tie after being down four goals, the team showed courage and determination to overcome a number of challenges.
In the overtime both teams had four shots on net.
The final shots were Voyageurs-59 and the Clippers-37.
The "ACAC Player of the Game” for the Voyageurs was left winger Lukas Vepy (#20) who had two goals and an assist in the game.
The coaches knew the players had learned their lesson from the previous night and were ready to play.
However, just 21 seconds into the first period the Clippers went ahead 1-0 on a shot and fluke deflection off a Voyageur defenseman's stick.
This was now the ninth time in ten games that the Voyageurs had given up the first goal of the game.
However that was all the Clippers would get in this game.
Near the end of the first period, hardworking, left winger Tim Crawley (#11) scored his first goal of the season jamming a loose puck from right in front of the Clippers net.
Assists went to defenseman Brent Wilson (#4) and centerman Cory Giroux (#19).
Both teams went 0-2 on the powerplay with the Voyageurs outshooting the Clippers 18-11.
The second period was all Voyageurs as they scored two unanswered goals.
However, the turning point of the game wasn't until Cory Giroux's strange goal half way through the period.
The Briercrest Clippers had forechecking pressure in the Voyageur's defensive zone and to relief the pressure defenseman Giiwedin Kakegabon (#25) had iced the puck into the Clipper's defensive end.
However, the puck wasn't going to be called for icing, as the heavy snow slowed it down, so the Clippers goaltender came out, to his right, to play the puck near the bottom of the faceoff circle.
As the Clipper goaltender got to the puck so did Cory Giroux as he was forcing the play with a strong forecheck.
Under this pressure, the Clipper goaltender went to his backhand and tried to pass it to a Clipper defenseman behind their net.
Instead, the puck went towards the wide open Clipper's net and with an extra nudge by Voyageur's Giroux, the puck entered the Clippers net giving the Voyageurs their first lead in the two game series.
Cory Giroux, who had been fighting with the flu all week, scored what would turn out to be the winning goal, his 5th goal of the year.
The only assist went to defenseman Giiwedin Kakegabon who had just joined the team after a three game ACAC suspension.
Then at 17:11 of the second period right winger Matt Gary (#12) scored his second goal of the weekend to give the Voyageurs a 3-1 lead.
Assists went to defenseman Dan Usiski (#13) and defenseman Kris Steedsman (#2).
The Voyageurs outshot the Clippers 15-13 in the second period with the Clippers going 0-3 on their powerplay and the Voyageurs going 0-1.
Every hockey coach and player knows that a 3-1 lead is the worst lead in hockey as it gives you a false sense of security.
With that in mind, between the second and third period, in my coach's chalk-talk, I emphasized to all the players that we had to lay off the body-contact and stay out of the penalty box.
They needed to focus on skating and using their speed to pressure the Clippers in their defensive end.
The Voyageur's team had already been without defenseman Giiwedin Kakegabon for most of the second period, as at the 4:50 mark he was assessed a two minute penalty for hitting to the head which also came with a ten minute misconduct.
That meant that the team had been down to four defensemen for most of the second period.
The third period started with both teams feeling nervous and cautious; feeling their way around the ice.
Neither team wanted to make any type of major mistake that would lead to a goal.
Although it never led to a goal, the mistake was made by the Voyageurs at the 13:25 mark of the third period, when a Voyageur's defenseman received a two minute minor penalty for hitting from behind that also came with an automatic game misconduct.
The team would now be down to four defensemen with eight minutes still left in the game.
To make matters worse, the Voyageurs were already playing a man short and killing a penalty when this second infraction occurred.
The Voyageurs would now be short two men, killing the two penalties for a whole minute and ten seconds.
To magnify the situation the Clippers pulled their goaltender so they could put six attackers on the ice against the three Voyageur penalty killers.
It was a long minute for the Voyageur's faithful as the clock couldn't move fast enough but the Voyageur's penalty killers did an outstanding job.
A minute after the Voyageurs killed the penalty Cory Giroux scored his second goal of the game on a break-away to give the Voyageurs a three goal cushion.
It was Giroux's team leading sixth goal of the season and with his four assists gives him the team lead in scoring with 10 points.
Assists went to Gerald Desjarlais and Lukas Vepy.
The game ended 4-1 in favor of the Voyageurs.
The Voyageurs outshot the Clippers 15-12 for the period and 48-36 over the course of the game and 107-73 over the weekend.
The Clippers powerplay went 0-7 while the Voyageurs went 0-3.
The "ACAC Player of the Game” was Cory Giroux who had two goals and an assist in the game.
The "Coach's Award” went to goaltender Kyle Birch (#29) who played very well in the net for the Voyageurs giving up only one goal on 32 shots.
Next weekend the Voyageurs will play the biggest two games of their season when they will tangle with the MacEwan Griffins.
These two games will have a big impact on where the Voyageurs will end up in the ACAC standings this year.
The Voyageurs play at home Friday night and this is a game the Voyageur fans won't want to miss as it will have huge playoff implications.
