POOR THIRD PERIOD COSTS VOYAGEURS AGAINST SAIT

LAC LA BICHE – They'd hoped to reverse the script; instead, they wrote a chapter they won't care to re-read.

A day after a heartbreaking 4-3 overtime loss to the SAIT Trojans, the Portage College Voyageurs played a strong first period Saturday afternoon at the Bold Center, jumping out to a 1-0 lead on a Xavier Halterman goal at the 13:12 mark and appeared to have righted the ship. A SAIT goal in the last 10 seconds of the first and another not even halfway through the first minute of the second, however, and the Voyageurs began to take on water. After SAIT scored another in the first minute of the third, the flood gates opened, with the Trojans eventually skating away with a 7-1 win.

Brett Trentham led the way for the Trojans with a hat trick while Kaden Hanas added a pair of markers. Brandon Machado added five assists and was named SAIT's Player of the Game. Payton Mcdonald-Corea played a feisty game for the Voyageurs and took home similar honours for his squad.

After the match, Portage Head Coach Kevin McClelland was still bemoaning the defensive breakdowns that led to goals against early in the second and third.

"That can't happen, especially from our guys that have experience and then it just started to accumulate," he said.

McClelland, usually able to find the positives in a loss, wasn't looking for any moral victories after the pair of weekend games, even if the Voyageurs were competitive with the more-experienced Trojans for five of the seven periods of play.

"No, I don't think you can take any positives out of that," he said. "The way we folded the tent at the end and the way those second and third goals go in, it's just unacceptable. It shouldn't happen. It shouldn't happen but it keeps happening. We've got to make sure we fix it."

With perennial league leaders NAIT next on the docket, the head coach knows that the Voyageurs will have to bring their 'A' game if they don't want to get blown out of the building.

"I mean they just beat Red Deer 7-0 Friday so we'd better hold on to our hats, man, if we're not playing well," he said.