The Lost Weekend – Portage College Voyageurs at Briercrest Clippers (Feb. 3rd and 4th)
The Voyageurs left Thursday afternoon for the nine hour bus ride to Caronport, Saskatchewan hoping to secure a playoff spot in the ACAC men’s hockey league. This year’s team is without a doubt the best team that Lac La Biche has seen in the four years in the league. However, the academic challenges, long term and short term injuries, suspensions and undisciplined play had kept the teams potential off balance for most of the year. All that being said here were the two games that the Voyageurs needed to win to ensure they would be involved in this year’s post-season play. Briercrest had only made the playoffs once in their last 15 years and wouldn’t be making the playoffs this year either as they had only three points heading into this weekend’s series.
Briercrest Clippers 4 Portage College Voyageurs 3 (Feb. 3rd)
I really thought the Voyageurs were prepared for this weekend. The team knew that they had to play these next two games as hard as they had played against the Sait Trojans and Mount Royal University Cougars; nothing less would do. Their heads nodded up and down that they understood but events leading up to the game may have sabotaged any hope of winning these games. There were two crucial events that would make a difficult task even harder when the Voyageurs started game one. Defenseman Kris Steedsman didn’t make the road trip and then defenseman Brent Wilson left the game early in the first period and was lost to the team for the whole game. That left two defensemen, Matt Jacobucci and Cody Folstad and two forwards, Blair Hawes and Gerald Desjarlais, to play defense in game one. That was going to be a challenge and the Voyageur’s forwards needed to understand the need to support the team’s defense especially in the teams own end. Adding to the dilemma was scratching forward Codie Pedersen from the line-up half-way through the pre-game warm-up when Pedersen revealed that he was being hampered by a knee injury and unable to play as well. Pedersen had scored five goals in six games for the Voyageurs since re-joining the team after Christmas. Two other injured forwards Matt Gray and Richard Cameron decided to play through their injuries as did a handful of other players including defenseman Blair Hawes whole was nursing a bad back.
The first period would end tied 1-1. Scoring the first goal of the game was Voyageurs leading goal scorer Cory Giroux with his fourteenth goal of the year, on the powerplay that gave the Voyageurs a temporary 1-0 lead. Assists went to newly acquired forward Brandon Couto who was playing in his first game as a Voyageur and defenseman Brent Wilson. The Clippers tied the game late in the period. The Voyageurs outshot the Clippers 15-7. The Voyageurs went 1-2 on their powerplay.
In the second period the Voyageurs actually went up 3-1 scoring two more powerplay goals. Defenseman Cody Folstad scored his first goal as a Voyageur on a slap shot from the point that eluded the screened Clipper’s goaltender. Assists went to Couto and defenseman Blair Hawes. Then Troy Watt, who had joined the team after Christmas, scored his first goal as a Voyageur; it was a powerplay goal. Assisting on the play was Blair Hawes. Briercrest then scored two powerplay goals of their own to tie the game 3-3 but with a minute left in the period Giroux scored his second goal of the game, the fourth powerplay goal of the game for the Voyageurs to give them a 4-3 lead heading into the third period. The assist went to Hawes, his third assist of the game. The Voyageurs outshot the Clippers 15-14 and went 3-4 on the powerplay. The Clippers went 2-3 on their powerplay as both team’s powerplay was dominating the other team’s penalty killing units.
In the third period, the Voyageurs seemed to hit a wall as the momentum swung in Briercrest’s favor as they scored two unanswered goals to win the game 5-4. The Voyageurs had outshot the Clippers 9-7 in the third period and 39-28 in the game but it wasn’t enough. The manpower depleted squad couldn’t handle the energized Clipper’s team and their hot goaltender. The Voyageurs went 4-10 on the powerplay while the Clippers went 2-4. The Voyageurs had numerous scoring chances during the game that they didn’t capitalize on especially on the five on five man-power situations. Seeing that the Voyageurs were short staffed on defense, the bigger Clippers team also began playing a physical game, finishing their hits every chance they had in the Voyageur’s defensive zone. The Voyageurs have been noted for their physical play in the past but were unable to match the Clippers physical play in this game. To add further adversity to an already fragile team, Jory Geddes, the team’s leader in points, was concussed sometime late in the third period. Nobody on the team remembered seeing the hit but after the game, in the Voyageur’s dressing room, Geddes became incoherent and was on the verge of passing out. Quick action by Geddes’s teammates especially Richard Cameron helped Geddes awake until help could arrive. The Briecrest Clippers veteran trainer with the assistance of Gabbie Collinge, the Voyageur’s young trainer, accessed the situation. It was decided that Cody Mape’s family, which lives in Regina, would drive Geddes to a hospital in Regina so Geddes could be evaluated by a doctor. Thankfully Geddes will be okay but he may be out of the line-up for the rest of the season.
“ACAC Player of the Game” for the Voyageurs was defenseman Blair Hawes who had three assists in the game. The team definitely had a number of fans at the game as seven players had their families come out to watch the team play.
Briercrest Clippers 3 Portage College Voyageurs 2 (Feb. 4th)
Although he was in discomfort, forward Codie Pedersen decided to suit up for the afternoon game (2:00pm). His goal scoring prowess was missed in game one as Pedersen is a game breaker with his talent of scoring timely goals. As well, defenseman Brent Wilson would return to the line-up. Wilson’s ability to control the puck in our end was sorely missed as he has the capability to control the tempo of a game. The loss of Jory Geddes was a big blow to the team though but the players had to overcome the disappointment of losing another key player.
Two minutes into the opening period, the Clippers scored the only goal of the period, on their powerplay and took a 1-0 lead into the second period. That didn’t mean that the Voyageurs weren’t working hard. Actually they had a great period getting several great scoring chances in which to tie the game. Codie Pedersen was robbed by the Clipper’s goaltender when he walked in all alone after receiving a beautiful pass from Cory Giroux. Pedersen went high to the glove side but the goaltender was equal to the task. Then, minutes later, defenseman Blair Hawes hit the crossbar on a blast from the point. Dustin Popowich later skated in all alone on a partial breakaway on a great outlet pass from defenseman Brent Wilson. Popowich took a hard low shot that was turned aside by the Clipper’s goaltender. Richard Cameron using his outstanding speed broke in off the wing and hit the post on a “Gordie Howe” backhand attempt. In the dying minutes of the period defenseman Gerald Desjarlais jumped into a rush and was sprung free all alone on the Briercrest goaltender making a deke that the goaltender got his pad on and deflecting the puck into the corner. Pedersen and Lukas Vepy finished the period by hitting two goal posts. Not including the goal posts the Voyageurs outshot the Clippers 12-11 in the first period. However, the hockey gods were favoring the Briercrest Clippers.
In the second period the Voyageurs did tie the game 1-1 on a great individual effort by defenseman Blair Hawes. The goal was his second goal of the season but first since being converted to a defenseman. The lone assist went to forward Codie Pedersen. Briercrest did counter with another goal to take a 2-1 lead but at 12:52 of the second period and on the powerplay defenseman Matt Jacobucci snuck in the back-door and one-timed a perfect pass by Matt Gray to tie the game again 2-2. The second assist went to Dustin Popowich. Both Matt Gray and Cory Giroux also missed on break-aways that would have given the Voyageurs the lead. Giroux actually hit the post earlier in the period as well. The Voyageurs outshot the Clippers 15-9 in the period. Both teams went 1-3 on the powerplay. The second period was a costly one for the Voyageurs as they lost the services of yet another key player. Matt Gray was gone for the rest of the game as he had fallen heavily behind the Briercrest net and re-injured his ankle. He was bound and determined to stay in the game but his injury was too severe to allow him to put any pressure on his swelling ankle. This was another big loss for the team as Matt’s team leadership and courage would be missed.
The third period saw Briercrest outshoot the Voyageurs for the first time in six periods of hockey; 14-13. But it was the lucky bounce on the last goal with only two minutes remaining in the game that killed any hopes of the Voyageurs getting any points in this series. It was 18:09 of the third period when the Clipper’s leading scorer skated into the Voyageur’s end and taking a shot on net from the slot area. The puck was stopped by the Voyageurs goaltender Kyle Birch as he had come out to challenge the shooter but he was unable to control the rebound. As Birch desperately searched for the rebound puck he hadn’t seen the puck fly straight up, sailing high into the air above him. At the same time players from both teams converged to the front of the Voyageur’s net as the puck landed behind the helpless Voyageur’s goaltender and into the net giving Briercrest the go ahead goal with less than two minutes remaining in the game. The Voyageurs did pull their goaltender for the second game in a row but were unable get the tieing goal. As luck would have it, minutes earlier, Giroux had his second break-away of the game hit the post in his effort to break the tie. To the best of my knowledge it was the first time in the history of the Briercrest Clippers hockey team that they had ever swept a weekend series against any opponent. Overall the Voyageurs had outshot the Clippers 40-34 with the Voyageurs going 1-4 on the powerplay while Briercrest went 2-7.
“ACAC Player of the Game” for the Voyageurs was defenseman Matt Jacobucci. Once again the Clippers were much more physical than the Voyageurs especially in the Voyageur’s end of the ice which was the Clipper’s game plan all along.
The two losses to the Voyageurs were crushing losses that could mean missing the playoffs for the first time in their four years in the ACAC Hockey League. You don’t want to over analyze the games but when you lose two games to the worst team in the ACAC you need to look deeper into the reasons why. Probably the number one reason is the lack of experienced defensemen. This is true especially when it comes to killing penalties. Unfortunately, the Voyageurs penalty killing units gave up four goals in the two games against Briercrest. I believe that the lack of veteran defensemen was one of the underlying reasons. Through no fault of their own, we have three rookie defensemen plus two forwards playing on defense. To help alleviate the situation somewhat the forwards need to realize they have to do a better job helping their defensemen in the neutral zone and in their defensive end. Secondly, we’re not getting enough scoring from the forwards, especially secondary scoring, to help take the pressure off our goaltending and defensemen. Our goaltender Kyle Birch has played very well but you can’t expect him to play a perfect game every game. The team needs to rally behind his goaltending performances and win some games for him by scoring more goals.
Next weekend’s games against MacEwan College will be the two biggest games of the year for the Voyageurs as one of these two teams will get the last ACAC playoff spot. The Voyageurs are very capable of winning those two games but must be prepared to play the games with intelligence, passion and the desire to want those wins more than the Griffins. Game time Friday night is 7:00pm so come out and support your Portage College Voyageurs.
