A resilient SAIT Trojans men’s hockey team was too much for the upstart Portage College Voyageurs in a 7-5 victory on Saturday, Oct. 24 at SAIT Arena.
Portage College Voyageurs goalie Scott Orth smothers the puck with Trojans forward Kevin Lessard bearing down on the net.
The Trojans battled back from three separate, two goal deficits which doesn’t surprise third year forward Shane Lust.
“Since being with the Trojans, I have never felt at anytime during a game that we are out of it,” Lust said.
The Trojans scored four straight unanswered goals to overcome a 5-3 second period deficit.
The comeback was kicked off by Lust, who scored his fourth goal of the season in the final minute of the second period. Lust also had an assist on the opening goal.
“Anytime you score in the last minute it usually carries into the next period,” Lust said.
“During the second intermission there was a feeling that we could not be stopped,” said third year defenceman and captain Brock Michalsky.
Despite jumping out to an early lead, the Trojans couldn’t hang on as the Voyageurs were able to quickly respond with three goals on three straight shots against Trojan goalie Ryan Nieszner.
Nieszner was pulled three minutes into the second after giving up four goals on ten shots, only to return for the beginning of the third period.
Michalsky says the goals were really more a case of defensive lapses than poor goaltending.
“They were able to get quality shots from directly in front of the net,” he said.
“The Voyageurs capitalized on their chances early, leaving them with the lead.”
Michalsky feels the coaches’ decision to pull Nieszner played a factor in the turnaround.
“Every time you pull the goalie it creates a reset in the players’ focus which we needed at that point in the game.”
Trojans head coach Ken Babey said that Nieszner was reinserted after the second period because he felt that replacement Tommy Tartaglione, rookie, wasn’t ready to stay in the game.
Tartaglione looked tentative, especially when handling the puck, but settled down to only give up one goal on six shots.
In the third period Nieszner looked solid in shutting out the Voyageurs.
Despite the high score the Trojans penalty kill was able to fend off all five Voyageur power plays, while Lust also kicked in a short handed goal to start the scoring early in the first.
“Marco (Guercio, third year forward,) and I have been working very well together this year and have been adding some offence,” Lust said.
Lust says that Babey has made a point of focusing on penalty killing. The Trojans are third in the league, killing off 88.2 per cent of opponents power plays.
The win, along with a 2-1 victory the night before also over the Voyageurs, leaves the Trojans tied for first in the Alberta College Athletic Conference with 10 points.
Babey got his first victory after reaching a milestone of 400 wins the previous night which has only been achieved by one other Canadian post-secondary men’s hockey coach.
