Haygarth and RDP Kings double up Portage College Voyageurs

Brent Forster - Red Deer Polytechnic Athletics

Red Deer, AB – The Red Deer Polytechnic Kings didn't use their depleted defence as an excuse. 

Four Kings, who are typically forwards, effectively filled in on the blueline, helping their squad to drop the visiting Portage College Voyageurs 6-3.

"Ty Ettinger is out, he had dental surgery. Layne Toder is out two to three weeks with a lower body injury. Last weekend, our captain Tyler Podgorenko re-aggravated a lower body injury," explained Trevor Keeper, Red Deer Polytechnic Kings Hockey Head Coach. 

"I'm not sure what his diagnosis is, but Brennan Davis had to leave the game tonight. Out of our defencemen, we had one standing. Guys know that they have to fill in and they are willing to volunteer. We are putting them in places they probably haven't been since minor hockey." 

Defenceman Konrad Belcourt finished the game. Forwards Regan Doig, Chase Stephenson, Eric Sorensen and Jacob Kendall filled in on defence.

"All of the guys moving back to defence played awesome. It's definitely not easy playing on the backend, but we just tried to keep it simple, play hard and play Kings hockey," said Chase Haygarth, a five-foot-11 first-year forward. 

"That's what we did, but we have to give credit to those guys. It's not easy playing a new position, but they made it look easy tonight."

Defenceman Donovan Lumb completed his academic program in Fall 2021 Term and as a result, he didn't return after the break. 

The RDP Kings successfully killed off an early penalty, but less than a minute later the visitors opened the scoring. First-year Voyageurs forward Isaac Barr cut cross crease and feathered it in between Kings goalie Kristian Lyon's pads. 

That lead held until late in the second period.

With 2:22 remaining in the middle frame, the Kings knotted the contest 1-1 with six-foot-four Mathieu Lapointe's fourth of the season. At the top of the right circle, Lloydminster's Chase Haygarth released a hard wrist shot that Lapointe redirected past Voyageurs goaltender Jacob Gnidziejko. 

Lapointe (91)

"Going into the third period, I gave the team some short term goals about shots inside home plate and forechecking harder to create turnovers," said Keeper. "We discussed the power play - to look for sticks off the side or in the middle. The guys did that and they were able to build a 6-1 lead."

Less than two minutes into the third period, the Kings captured a one goal edge. Chance Longjohn made a backhand pass that found Ryley Smith stationed on the left side of the net. Smith paused, which froze Gnidziejko, and the RDP Bachelor of Education Elementary student tucked it in the far side.

Within a minute the Kings went up a pair. Jacob Kendall, a Bachelor of Education Elementary student, skated down the middle of the slot and sniped it high on the blocker side.

On the power play, Kendall set up teammate Tucker Scantlebury for a tip in at the side of Portage College's net for a 4-1 edge. It was Scantlebury's fourth goal and ninth point of the season.

Scantlebury (77)

Then RDP's Chase Haygarth scored his first goal in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) at 8:02.

"They went to clear it out of the zone and Doiger made a great play at the blueline. He kept it in and threw it at the net," said Haygarth. "Luckily, it was sitting there for me and I just had to tap it in. There's been a couple this year that I thought should go in, so to get one of those was nice."

Longjohn's third of the season lifted the Kings to a 6-1 lead 89 seconds later.

The Voyageurs power play went to work late in the final frame. From the left face-off dot, Brayden Dale found space between Lyon's arm and body.

Then Portage College pulled within three. Logan Spence found himself in alone on Lyon and scored on the backhand, but that was as close as the visitors got. 

Lyon turned aside 20 shots for his first win in the ACAC.

Lyon (35)

Gnidziekjko stopped 22-of-28 shots.

With a goal and an assist, Chase Haygarth was named the North Star Sports Kings Player of the Game. Haygarth bumped his points total to three. 

C. Haygarth (10)

"Chase's biggest attributes are that he is feisty and competitive. He can skate and when he decides that he doesn't want to lose, he can be very effective. That's why players don't like playing against him. Not a big guy, but he is in your face," said Keeper.

"Today, he was creating chances for his line and I threw him on a couple different lines because we were shorthanded. He takes a lot of pride, with his brother Easton, on the penalty kill. They are the first two guys out of the gate for us on the PK and they work really hard. Their game will continue to grow now that they have a little bit of confidence going."

Haygarth and many of the first-year Kings are adjusting to ACAC hockey. 

"It's definitely been a jump, especially not playing hockey last year," said Haygarth, who played junior hockey with the Flin Flon Bombers of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL). "You come up here and play against older guys who are a lot bigger and stronger than what you played against in junior." 

Liam Visram was selected as the top performer for the Voyageurs, recording a pair of assists.

The RDP Kings went one-for-eight on the power play. The Voyageurs connected once on three tries. 

On Saturday, February 5, the third place Red Deer Polytechnic Kings (5-1-2-1) and the Portage College Voyageurs (1-9-0-0) will meet in Lac La Biche at 7 pm.

"One of the positive things is that we are gaining a defenceman, one of our former defencemen that's coming in to play the rest of the season," said Keeper of six-foot-two Jantzen Leslie.

"He will help us out and Arik Weersink will likely have a chance to get back into goal. He played really well a couple of games ago. We won't have too many bodies back, but we will rest up for a day. We will have a short practice and then go up there and play a really smart, defensive road game and see if we can manage the puck and scoreboard."