VALIANT VOYAGEURS VANQUISH OOKS IN OVERTIME

LAC LA BICHE – The strands of Gwen Stefani's "The Sweet Escape" could be heard from way down the hallway from the Portage College Voyageurs' dressing room. "Woo hoo! Wee hoo! Woo hoo! Wee hoo!"  sang a bunch of men in their best falsetto. On this night, there was joy in Mudville.

The Voyageurs had plenty of reasons to sing and celebrate after playing their most complete home game of the season, coming back three times from one-goal deficits to eventually beat the visiting NAIT Ooks 4-3 in an overtime thriller at the Bold Center. Josh Crooks, with his second marker of the game, ended the entertaining contest on a breakaway from centre ice a little more than three minutes into the extra frame. Carter Yarish and Shaye Sommerfeld also scored for the Voyageurs, while Eric Lacombe, Drae Gardiner and Brandon Lawson replied for the Ooks.

After the game, Voyageurs' head coach Kevin McClelland gave his troops full marks for the victory, while singling out Portage Player of the Game Josh Crooks for special praise.

"Any time you can insert someone like that into your lineup is a bonus, especially when you're lacking in the area of scoring…Our team's got a lot of speed but that guy shows you how to use it," he said of Crooks, who only joined the squad in January and already has five goals and 10 points. "I think you saw that all night tonight. Puck battles, dumping the puck to himself and beating the defenseman. He's got a lot of speed and it gets contagious."

The victory didn't come easy for the Voyageurs, who have battled through adversity all season. Despite outshooting the Ooks 19-8 in the first period, the first 20 minutes ended in a 1-1 tie, thanks to outstanding netminding from NAIT Player of the Game McCoy Bidewell, who finished the contest with 43 saves. The second provided more opportunities for Portage to waive the white flag, after giving up a shorthanded marker and a goal with six seconds left in the period. McClelland wasn't about to let his players wallow in their misfortune, however.

"We were playing a good game and that goal with six seconds left, that happens," he said. "We told the guys in between periods, you know what, we're in a good spot. We've played well. It wasn't fair, that goal with six seconds but the game's 60 minutes long and we've got 20 minutes to get one goal and that's what we did."

Indeed, with goalie Luke Hall on the bench for the extra attacker, Crooks sniped the tying goal with less than two minutes left in the third, setting the stage for his overtime heroics. The Voyageurs have now won two of their past three contests, giving themselves an outside shot at a playoff berth. After a rematch in Edmonton against NAIT on Saturday, the squad faces off against Concordia twice next weekend, the team the Voyageurs are chasing for the final playoff spot. McClelland is enjoying the progress his young players have made since the beginning of the season.

"It takes a little while to get used to this league," he said. "And when you've got 17 rookies, it's tough. You know, Crooks has been a big addition after Christmas time. That's huge…And this is something to build on. We've got a couple of guys back in our lineup if we want to put them back in, with (Thomas) Colter and Payton McDonald-Corea coming off of a suspension so we'll see what happens and how guys are health-wise too."