LAC LA BICHE - The mathematical chances for a playoff spot just didn't add up for the Portage College Voyageurs.
The team dropped two, must-win games to the SAIT Trojans over the weekend. The losses — 9-2 on Friday night and 6-2 on Saturday — came on the heels of a hopeful comeback for the Voyageurs after they won their first regular season game of the year a week earlier against the league-leading Concordia Thunder. That win's two points put the Voyageurs just four points behind the Briercrest Clippers and the sixth and final playoff spot of the seven-team Alberta Colleges Athletic Conferece league. To snag the last spot, Portage had to win both of their games, and Briercrest had to lose theirs for the Cinderella story to work out.
Friday night's 9-2 loss to SAIT closed the book on any fairy-tale ending for the Voyageurs. The game also halted a four-game streak where the Voyageurs had scored the opening goal.
In the first of the two away games, the Trojans blasted 53 shots into the Portage netminding duo of Jacob Gnidziejko and Luke Hall over the course of the game. With 43 shots on net and the team down 7-1 after two periods Gnidziejko was replaced by Hall for the last 20 minutes of the game.
While the pucks behind the Portage goalies were showing results for SAIT's offence, the pucks in front of the Voyageur netminders weren't generating the same opportunities for the Portage forwards. The Voyageurs tallied just 26 shots on the relatively unchallenged Trojan netminder.
Top scorer
Although their offence wasn't generating a lot of impact for the Voyageurs, there was a bright spot in the night's scoring. Brayden Dale scored the first of the two Voyageur goals at the midway point of the first period, his sixth goal of the season, putting him in tie for the fourth place overall scoring leader in the ACAC this season. The Voyageurs' second goal was scored by Logan Spence on a powerplay effort at the midpoint of the final period.
Saturday' game offered much of the same for the Voyageurs who struggled on the offence, notching just 25 attempts on the SAIT net, while their opponents hammered more than 50. Voyageurs forward Isaac Barr scored both of his team's goals.
Going into the weekend games, SAIT was in fourth place in the ACAC division, winning six of their 14 regular season games, and already securing them a place in the league playdowns.
Prior to the weekend games, and coming off their first regulation time win, Voyageurs coach Kevin McClelland said he had seen improvements in his team over the last games. He’s had also seen more of his team in general.
"We've had four or five of our best guys out and we had some guys with COVID, so when you take key guys out of your lineup it's always difficult, especially in a league of this calibre,” he said on the team’s post-game online game summary, following the Feb. 18 win over Concordia. “But tonight was the night we had everybody that we wanted in the lineup.”
Rematch and midweek losses
In a rare mid-week game last Tuesday, the Voyageurs scored first, but couldn’t keep the lead, losing to the Augustana University Vikings 5-3 at the Encana Arena in Camrose. The win for Augustana nudged them into fifth place overall with 10 points on the season.
The ACAC playoff first round begins on March 4 where the sixth place team — Briercrest — faces off in a best-of-three series against the league's third place team, Red Deer Polytechnic.
Lakeland This Week will have a followup on the Voyageurs' season and what's in store for the team in the off-season.
*With files / Rahma Dalmar
