After a 7-2 win over NAIT in seven ends Sunday night, the Portage College Voyageurs men's curling team has won the college's first ACAC title in any sport.
They had to win a shootout to stay alive. Then they had to beat the NAIT Ooks in extra ends. Then they had to beat them again.
But after a 7-2 win in seven ends Sunday night, the Portage College Voyageurs men's curling team has won the college's first ACAC title in any sport. They will go to Sault Ste. Marie March 18-22 to represent the province at the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association nationals.
"It's a huge accomplishment for the guys that committed to this team, it's a huge accomplishment for their coach," said Jim Knight, manager of athletics and recreation for Portage.
It was the team's first year of operation, let alone their first visit to ACAC provincials. The team lost their first match to the University of Alberta-Augustana 7-5 and won their next match 8-3 against Grant MacEwan University. A 7-4 loss to the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology put the Voyageurs in a three-way tie with MacEwan and Augustana for the final two spots in the playoffs.
In the tiebreaking shootout, where each player tried to draw to the button and was awarded points to their team based on how close they got, the Voyageurs won with 25 shots, setting them up with a rematch with NAIT in the 1-2 page playoff.
"When they came off they knew their mistakes," Knight said. "They knew if they played NAIT again, that they could beat NAIT."
On Saturday, the Voyageurs got even with a 7-6 win in extra ends over NAIT, qualifying for nationals, but Portage hadn't seen the last of them: the Ooks won their second-round page playoff against MacEwan, setting up a second rematch Sunday.
Knight said that having nationals status sewn up eliminated the pressure for the team. "They were very confident," he said. "There was no pressure, just go out, have some fun and curl."
Portage scored two in the second end with the hammer before stealing points in the next three ends, nabbing a deuce in the fifth to establish a 6-0 lead. NAIT posted two in the sixth, but when the Voyageurs got one more to make it 7-2, it was too much to overcome and the game ended.
Knight said the second steal broke the Ooks. "We could see it on NAIT's players that they were dejected," he said.
He praised the performance of the team, made up of skip Corey Leach, Kyle Leach, Derek Gauthier, Dylan Ulliac, and coach Maurice Richard. According to Knight, Corey Leach took the lead on a good night of shooting from all players.
"I thought he shot very well, the whole team shot well," he said. "I think they missed one shot the first five ends, that's how well they were curling."
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misspelled Derek Gauthier's name. The article has been edited to reflect that fact.
