HISTORIC WEEKEND KEEPS VOYAGEURS IN DOWN-TO-THE-WIRE PLAYOFF RACE
CARONPORT, SK – Canadian Tire used to run an ad during the Christmas season that had the tagline "Give like Santa, save like Scrooge." The Portage College Voyageurs created a similarly styled tagline this past long weekend, which featured both Friday the 13th and Valentine's Day: "Be resilient like Jason, show heart like Cupid."
The men's hockey squad rolled into Barkman Arena – a notoriously difficult place for visiting squads to play – and stole five of a possible six points from the hometown Briercrest Clippers. The pair of victories – 7-6 in overtime on Friday and 6-4 on Saturday afternoon – left the Voyageurs tantalizingly close to clinching their first playoff spot in 12 years, needing a single point in their next two games against Concordia to nail it down.
Head Coach Kevin McClelland, who's experienced his share of nightmarish trips to Briercrest's barn, was beaming with pride following the weekend's results, the best the Voyageurs have had in Saskatchewan in at least a decade.
"The guys did well and it's all about the guys," said the veteran head coach, quick to give the credit to his determined players. "You know, the funny thing is, I went out there this weekend and I didn't have to fight, I didn't have to have a hit, I didn't have to have a shot on net. The guys did it all, man."
Friday's contest started out like a nightmare for the Voyageurs, with the visitors falling behind 2-0 before the game was barely two minutes old. As they have all year, however, McClelland's troops battled back and grabbed a 4-2 lead by the end of the first period. And even when all looked lost, after Briercrest scored four unanswered goals in the second, the Voyageurs once again found a way – like Jason from the Friday the 13th movies – to come back from the dead. Tye Evans scored twice in a little over a minute three-quarters of the way through the third and Xavier Halterman potted the winner 3:37 into overtime. Tresor Wotton made 52 saves in the win.
Saturday's return engagement on Valentine's Day again featured several lead changes and, as always, lots of heart from the Voyageurs. When the Clippers' Jackson Allan tied the game at four with less than a minute and a half remaining, it looked like the two teams were headed for extra time once again. Emrick Paradis had other ideas, however, potting his second of the season with less than a minute remaining. Evans added another marker on the powerplay and the visitors headed home with two critical victories in the bag. Jackson Miller made 47 saves in the win.
"I think we worked really hard and that's really what got us the results we got this weekend because it was a really important weekend," said Paradis. "We needed those five points to hopefully help us clinch for playoffs so I think it was a huge weekend. The guys were ready. We had a good week of practice and then it was a good weekend, yeah."
Both games featured firewagon hockey, with lots of scoring opportunities and some superb goaltending from both squads. Indeed, the shot totals in both games passed 100, with the Clippers outshooting the Voyageurs 58-50 on Friday and Portage outshooting Briercrest 54-51 on Saturday. Despite the run-and-gun style of hockey, Paradis noted there were still stellar defensive plays at critical junctures of the matches.
"I think the shots were representative of the games because there was a bunch of them," he said. "They were really offensive games. But I think we played good games all around. Even defensively, we had (Avery) McNabb that blocked a shot that possibly could've ended up in our goal so everybody played really good."
McClelland agreed, noting that in addition to stellar netminding from Wotton and Miller, the Voyageurs' ability to score when they needed to really served them well this past weekend.
"We've been doing that this year a lot," he said. "Thankfully, that's been the case. You know we get down and we get right back and pull out games late and pull out games in overtime. It was a good weekend."
The four-time Stanley Cup Champion and his players are anxious to get right back on the ice and hopefully grab a playoff spot as they face off against Concordia for a home and away series this weekend, although they know they have to remain focused and, like the cliché goes, take things one shift, one period, one game at a time. After all, they could finish as high as fourth and as low as seventh – and out of the playoffs – depending how the upcoming weekend goes. Nonetheless, it's hard to entirely temper the anticipation of a potential playoff berth for the first time since 2014.
"I'm excited for this weekend," said Paradis.
Players of the Game
February 13
Portage: # 21 Tye Evans
February 14
Portage: # 12 Stavros Koutsantonis