KINGS CROWN VOYAGEURS

LAC LA BICHE – For two periods, the Portage College Voyageurs played all the right cards against the Red Deer Polytechnic (RDP) Kings. Jump out to an early lead, mix in some strong special teams, and sprinkle in some excellent goaltending and they likely had a winning hand.

Except, of course, hockey has at least three periods and the third….well, the third was a different story at the Bold Center Friday night, even if it was entertaining. Down 3-1 to start the final 20 minutes, the Kings roared back with four unanswered goals to take the game 5-3, notching the winner on the man advantage with less than four minutes to play. The Voyageurs might've had four of a kind – but the Kings had a royal flush. Tough hand to be dealt.

"Anytime you go into the third with a 3-1 lead you know, that's difficult to swallow," said Voyageurs Head Coach Kevin McClelland after the game. "I didn't like the second goal, we've got to be better in those situations. Get a little deeper into the third period before they score that second goal. That was the turning point right there. It gave them a little bit of momentum."

The game started well for the Voyageurs, who scored on two of their first three shots on goals by Blake Astorino and Ty Budai. After Deegan Mofford brought the Kings to within one, Brayden Dale potted a late second-period marker on the powerplay to put the Voyageurs up by two heading into the dressing room. An early third-period marker by Ryland McNinch got RDP rolling, however, and they never looked back, with Chance Longjohn, Hayden Clayton and Nolan Doell rounding out the scoring. Dylan Esau was a standout for the Kings and was named Player of the Game for his squad. Logan Spence played a stellar game for the Voyageurs and received similar honours for his team.  

The Voyageurs won't have to wait long to try and find a winning hand against the Kings. The two squads square off again on Saturday afternoon. McClelland knows his team will have to be more responsible defensively and avoid costly penalties if they want to claim their first victory of the season.

"We've just got to be better…We turned the puck over too much," he said. "We never kept the third guy high and they kept coming at us on odd-man rushes. When you put too much pressure like that on your defence night after night, shift after shift, eventually something's gonna happen."