As August came to a close, the Portage College Voyageurs men’s hockey team grabbed their sticks, laced up their skates, and hit the ice. On August 29, training for the Voyageurs commenced.
Coming off a rough 2017/2018 season, where the Voyageurs only had three wins, new coach Nate Bedford has a positive outlook and is excited about the 2018/2019 season. Last year, the Voyageurs witnessed much turmoil, particularly surrounding the uncertainty of where the Voyageurs would play. This confusion in turn affected recruiting, causing a lack of cohesion to transpire in the dressing room. In an effort to change that, Bedford spent the past summer recruiting new Voyageur players that could compete in the upcoming season.
Within the 27-man Voyageur roster are 16 new players to the program, including Lukas Lojka, a forward, coming to Lac La Biche from the Czech Republic, where he spent his previous season playing for the UK Praha in the European University Hockey League. He has also played a season for the Casper Coyotes in the Western States Hockey League, where he averaged 1.5 points a game. Also joining Bedford are three players he previously coached with the Battlefords North Stars: Troy Gerein, Logan Nachtegeale, and Taryn Kotchorek. While Bedford coached the North Stars for the 2016/2017 season, he and the three North Stars players went undefeated in playoffs, winning the Canalta Cup Championship in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. The North Stars finished 48-9-1-0 that season.
When asked about how it was having three former players joining him on the Voyageurs, he replied, “there is a sense of familiarity with them. We won a championship together, the first one for the North Stars in [17 years], and it helps having them in the locker room.”
Bedford also spoke highly of his overall team’s academic work. He commented on how hard each athlete worked in the off-season to ensure that they had the grades that allowed them to come Portage College, which spoke volumes to the high-level student athletes that are a part of the hockey program.
“Seeing the amount of work these players put in to ensure that they could be here is a testament of the hard work that they can deliver, but also that they are here to play and to compete.”
Bedford aims to show Lac La Biche that the Voyageurs can compete with the rest in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC).
Training is ramping-up to two-a-days with pre-season games commencing on September 12.
The Voyageurs regular season home opener at the Bold Center is October 5, where they host the SAIT Trojans.
“We look forward to playing this year and showing Lac La Biche that we can compete, and hopefully bring home a few more wins this season,” said Bedford.
There are pre-season exhibition games planned for the team. The first is set for Sept.12. Click here to watch for updates.
