NAIT SCORES LATE AS VOYAGEURS SUFFER ANOTHER HEARTBREAKING LOSS

LAC LA BICHE, AB – November 11, 2023 will not be a date that the Portage College Voyageurs will soon forget. On a day when Canadians pause to pay tribute to all those who have valiantly served the country and fought for freedom, the Voyageurs put forward a valiant effort against the league-leading NAIT Ooks on Saturday afternoon at the Bold Center. As has been the case for much of this season, however, the game ended in heartbreak.

Down 4-2 early in the third period, the Voyageurs mounted a furious comeback, dominating much of the play, and managing to tie the game with goals less than three minutes apart from Portage Player of the Game Shaye Sommerfeld and Xavier Halterman. Then, with all the momentum and a raucous crowd behind them, a costly error at the Ooks' blueline led to an odd-man rush and Ooks' Player of the Game Brandon Lawson potted the eventual game winner with less than four minutes to play. Ty Yoder added an empty netter and NAIT skated away with a 6-4 victory.

"I mean we get it to 4-4, we make a good comeback and then with three minutes left, we've got a defenceman stickhandling at the blue line instead of just dumping the puck deep," said Voyageurs' Head Coach Kevin McClelland after the game. "They couldn't get the puck out of their zone there till that point. Stickhandling while standing still with pressure coming on you, you know you've just got to get that puck deep…Costly mistakes at the wrong time. That's huge. That one should not happen. Four minutes left, we get a point and then we try and get the extra one in overtime. That's a tough one."

The entire weekend proved to be a tough one for the Voyageurs, who gave the Ooks all they could handle in both games of the home-and-home series but had nothing to show for it by the final whistle.

"We played good last night," said McClelland about a 4-1 loss to NAIT in Edmonton on Friday. "We were up I think 13-1 in shots in their building in the first five minutes. We didn't capitalize on a couple of powerplays. That would've been huge for us. Last night we didn't and we lose that game and tonight, you know, there were so many momentum swings but that fifth goal was the dagger. We needed that point."

Despite the repeated heartbreaking losses and costly mental mistakes, the head coach is pleased to see his players continuing to play with heart and improving their overall play as the season progresses. McClelland vows that his troops will keep fighting to the end of the season.

"Our guys are really starting to get going," he said. "We're starting to score some goals, we're using our speed, we're forcing turnovers in the neutral zone, so we're starting to get it …We won't let this loss bother us. We'll keep moving forward."