KINGS CROWN INJURED VOYAGEURS TWICE TO WRAP UP FIRST HALF OF SEASON

RED DEER – All the Portage College Voyageurs want for Christmas is a clean bill of health – and maybe a few more timely goals. While visions of sugar plums dance in children's heads this yuletide season, the members of Kevin McClelland's ACAC men's hockey team will be envisioning a full lineup and a few more victories to push them into the playoffs come next March.

"I think continual work on our game and bringing back healthy guys is going to be important," said Assistant Captain Xavier Halterman, clearly working on his wish list for Santa. "Once we get some of those guys back our cohesion will definitely build and that will help us play to our potential."

With as many as eight regulars out of the lineup for extended periods of time and a few untimely breakdowns or shorthanded goals against during the first half of the 24-25 season, the Voyageurs are not where they want to be in the standings at the Christmas break. A pair of weekend losses to the host Red Deer College Kings – 7-3 on Nov. 29 and 5-2 on Nov. 30 – extended their losing streak to 10 games and left them sitting in last place in the seven-team conference. Despite the latest setbacks, their head coach found some positives in the weekend tilts.

"We played against a pretty good team there," said McClelland of the two-time defending-champion Kings. "I didn't like our game Friday, but I liked our game Saturday. I felt we were competitive, and I was worried about that getaway game as you call it. We fought through it."

The omnipresent injury bug continued to bite Portage over the weekend, with goaltender Luke Hall leaving the Nov. 29 game with an injury and his replacement, Tresor Wotton, getting knocked out of the game – literally – after being run over in his crease. Down to one goalie, the Voyageurs gutted it out on Nov. 30, keeping the game tied through two periods, thanks to stellar play from Ethan Shebansky in net and some determined work from the team. Despite eventually losing 5-2, Halterman noted that the game served as a morale boost for the squad.

"I think that the work ethic that we put into that last Saturday game put some hope into the guys and showed that we can still play in this league and we're not going to get bullied out of the playoff race," he said.

Indeed, despite the long losing streak after opening the season with two wins, the Voyageurs are only a few points out of a playoff spot and are playing the team they are chasing – the Concordia Thunder – to open the second half. And as the Thunder proved last year, finishing sixth in the conference but then making it all the way to the finals, you just have to get in and then anything's possible. With most of their regulars due back into the lineup come January, Captain Kaden Kohle is optimistic the season is still salvageable.

"This Christmas break should be good," he said. "I think we'll be a new team in the second half."

At the same time, the players and their four-time-Stanley-Cup-winning head coach realize that they also have to clean up their mental errors and improve their special teams play if they're going to make a playoff run.

"I see goals that go in and basically it's the same mistakes we always make so we just need to clean that up," said Kohle.

"The (returning players) are not going to be the saviours," added McClelland. "We've got to make sure that we come together as a team. When they come back and we start doing all the little things, that'll win us hockey games."