The opening game of a weekender in Red Deer for the Portage Voyageurs made fans wonder what the two teams would be like at even-strength.
The Voyageurs lost to the league-leading Red Deer Polytechnic Kings 6-3 in the Friday night Alberta College's Athletics Conference game. Four of Red Deer's goals were scored on the power-play, and one was short-handed. The Voyageurs managed to score one of their three on the power play.
Despite the six overall man-advantage goals, the game between the league's top and bottom teams only saw a total of 18 minutes of penalties — 10 on five infractions for Portage and eight on four penalties for Red Deer.
Also on the low side, was the amount of shots generated by the Voyageurs — just 17 on the Kings' net, compared to 35 fired the other way.
Saturday afternoon's re-match, still on the road for Portage, racked up twice as many penalties, half as many goals ... and the same low-end shot tally.
The lone Portage goal in the 4-1 loss came from Shaye Sommerfeld on a power-play. It was one of only 20 shots the team generated in the game. Voyageurs' netminder Alex Brousseau faced 30 shots.
Chance to climb
The weekend results extend the Voyageurs' losing streak to four games, keeping them in last place of the ACAC northern conference. Portage is six points out of the last-place playoff spot — currently occupied by Concordia — with six more games to play in the regular season. All six of those games are against the other three teams currently sitting in the bottom half of the seven-team division.
Portage play the NAIT Ooks on February 3 in Edmonton, returning on Saturday to the Bold Center for a 7pm game. The Voyageurs then begin their two-game weekend against Concordia at home on February 10. The Voyageurs wrap up regular season play against Briercrest with two home games on February 24 and 25.
