Twenty minutes of effort just isn’ t enough to win hockey games, and Portage College Voyageurs head coach Nate Bedford said that’ s exactly what cost the them last Thursday night’ s game.
Twenty minutes of effort just isn’ t enough to win hockey games, and Portage College Voyageurs head coach Nate Bedford said that’ s exactly what cost the them last Thursday night’ s game.
The Voyageurs lost 3-1 to the Concordia University of Edmonton Thunder. The team played their fifth exhibition game of the pre-season and second of two played on home ice.
It was the team’ s fourth loss of the pre-season, having won only one game on Sept. 23 against the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology Trojans.
Bedford expressed his disappointment over the loss, saying the team had a good first period but went downhill in the last two. He also said the amount of time the team spent in the penalty box offered Concordia the opportunity to pull ahead.
“During the first period we played fantastic,” said Bedford. “It was probably the best period we’ ve played so far in the entire exhibition season. After that, we kind of fell apart.”
Bedford said he found the decline in quality of performance by his players frustrating, adding his team was better than that. But the rowdiness of his players towards the very end of the game - which included a fight between the Voyageurs’ Toby Shattler and Concordia’ s Phil Dillon - was another issue Bedford said contributed to the loss.
“Discipline has been an issue since I got here,” he said. “That’ s what makes you losers.”
As to where his team has improved since previous games, Bedford only said that the team performed well in all aspects during the first period.
“We were on the puck, we played as a team, we were passing, forechecking and shooting,” he said. “And then for the rest of the game, we just didn’ t.”
At least in terms of goal differential, the game was an improvement on some of their previous losses, including getting blanked during their first two games. But Bedford still commended Concordia, saying they played well and earned their win.
“Kudos to them, they played three hard periods of hockey, they deserved the win,” he said. “We made mistakes and they were able to capitalize on them and score.”
The Voyageurs play the Thunder again Friday night in Concordia in their last exhibition game of the pre-season.
The team plays the first two games of the regular season against the Briercrest College Athletics at Briercrest before playing the Grant MacEwan University Griffins in the Voyageurs’ home opener at the Bold Center Friday, Oct. 13.
