Patachak and Kings ride special teams over Voyageurs

Brent Forster – RDC

Red Deer, AB – Coming off a bye week, an energized Kings team used their effective special teams and downed the visiting Portage College Voyageurs 6-2 at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre.

"I thought that we played well. It was tight, score wise, in the first period," says Trevor Keeper, Kings Head Coach. "In the second period, we broke it open and in the third we kept doing what we were doing the whole game."

The Red Deer College Kings' power play clicked early. At 3:30 into the first, Lynnden Pastachak sniped one past Taryn Korchorek with the man advantage to give the Kings an early 1-0 lead. Defencemen Tanner Butler and Trevor Costello set up the marker. Nearly seven minutes later, Portage College's Layne Anderson evened the contest 1-1.

Colby Brochu Photography

In the middle frame, the Kings' offence clicked four times to pull ahead 5-1. Tyler Podgorenko,an Instrumentation Engineering Technology student, scored consecutive goals, including one on the power play. Then Chase Thudium and Scott Ferguson completed the wave of scoring in the second.

At 17:36 of the third, Lynnden Pastachak scored unassisted, recording his fourth point of the evening. Just over a minute later, Brayden Dale connected for the Voyageurs but the RDC Kings locked up a 6-2 home victory.

"We were stuck at five goals for a while, but we played well and had a lot of scoring opportunities," says Keeper. "The guys did exactly what we asked them too."

The Kings peppered Kotchorek with 47 shots. Troy Trombley turned aside 27 out of 29 shots (0.931) for the win in net.

Troy Trombley (36) Colby Brochu Photography

The RDC Kings went 2 for 6 on the power play and were perfect on the penalty kill.

"Our power play, I thought, was really good tonight – a lot more dynamic, a lot more puck movement, a lot more interchanges of guys going into different positions. It's hard to penalty kill when you do that," says Keeper. "Against MacEwan, our power play was moving the puck but we were standing still too much and the guys addressed that. The penalty kill worked hard all week too. They only had to do it one time tonight but they were 100 per cent."

Colby Brochu Photography

The blend of relaxation and training during the Kings' bye week paid dividends.

"It was the result of a good week of preparation. After our last games against MacEwan, we did some skills stuff and had a bit of a taper week. This past week, we really worked on our offence and special teams," says Keeper. "It was a tough time when we played MacEwan. It was midterm time at school, guys are tired and it's a grind. Having that week off, we gave them three full days off away from the rink and a couple of light practices, re-energizing and getting back at it."

On Saturday, November 10, the Red Deer College Kings (6-2-0-1) will host the Portage College Voyageurs (2-7-0-0) at 1:00 p.m. at the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre.