The Portage College Voyaguers hockey team spent this past weekend practicing for their first game back to the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference season after an extended mid-season break.
The Voyageurs will faceoff against the Concordia University Thunder this coming Friday, January 10 — following a game-break of more than a month. The Voyageur's last game was a 6-3 loss to Augustana on November 30. It was the team's 14th straight loss since the season began.
Voyageurs head coach Nate Bedford spent the last weekend in a series of conditioning practices with the team. But it's not just physical training the team is working on, says the coach. His team has to get past their tough first half of the season, where despite some tough battles, they failed to get a regulation time win in 14 starts.
“We want to make sure that we forget everything that happened in the first semester and start out on a positive note," Bedford told the POST on Friday night. "We want to continue to build our program from where it is, and when we do that wins will start coming.”
New Year's wish
As the team hits the ice for the first time back, Bedford made a New Year's Resolution for the boys.
“Our New Year's Resolution is to start winning. We’ve got a really good group of guys, and regardless of our wins and losses we are going in the right direction right now.”
This Concordia squad is the same team the Voyageurs played to start this ACAC season in September. That game resulted in a 4-2 win for Concordia. Bedford is hoping to play the same team to start the second half of the season, but this time come up with a win.
Friday's home game starts at the Bold Center's Performance Arena at 7 pm. The Voyageurs head to Edmonton the following night for the second game of the home and home stand. The Concordia Thunder are in sixth place of the eight-team ACAC league with 11 points on the season. The Voyageurs are in last place with a single point on the season so far.
When league playoffs begin in March, only the top six teams will be included in post-season action.
