Concordia Thunder win the Home Opener against the Portage Voyagers

EDMONTON, AB (November 19, 2021) - The home opener of the 2021/2022 Concordia University of Edmonton Men's Hockey team against the Portage College Voyagers ended in a 3-2 win. The game was hard played by both teams. There was back and forth play between both teams, but the Thunder were the successful team tonight. 

The first period began with the Thunder putting numbers on the board. The Thunder were given the first penalty of the game however, the penalty kill worked hard and managed a short-handed goal by #22 Rory Davidson. Hard back and forth play from both teams held the score to 1-0 for the Thunder after the first period. 

The second period started with the tying goal from The Voyagers. Concordia Thunder did not let the tie last long. #7 Keegan Tiringer scored with assists from #14 Ryan Nivon and #21 Tyler Benko. The second period saw a little more body as time ran out and the game remained tied. The Voyagers snuck in another one before the period ended. The game was tied 2-2 at the end of the second. 

The third period the Thunder came to play. A nice play resulted in another goal for the Thunder to take the lead. #18 Peter Tomaras took it to the net leaving a rebound that #39 Alex Morocco capitalized on for his first goal in the ACAC.  The third period ended with some exciting action when the Voyagers pulled their goalie with 2:50 left in the period. The Thunder unfortunately unable to capitalize on the empty net and the game ended in a score of 3-2 for the Thunder. The One Team Sports player of the game for the Portage Voyagers was #18 Ty Budai and for the Concordia Thunder #39 Alex Morrocco. 

Head Coach Joey Bouchard had this to say after the game "It was a tough game to play tonight. Portage came at us pretty hard. Credit to their team they played hard, and they took some time and space away from our team but overall, the goal tonight was to get the 2 points. It was a character win. Our penalty kill did great tonight. We took time and space away from their power play. We were very structured in the penalty kill. Our Goalies played really well, and the Portage Goalie made some big saves tonight."

Concordia Thunder Player of the Game, Alex Morrocco had this to say after the game "There were definitely lots of positives and negatives. I think there are definitely improvement that we can make in our whole game overall but I think we finished on a high note and we will continue that for the next game."

The Concordia Thunder play their next game at home on November 27th against Briercrest College. Join us at Clareview Recreation Centre or watch on ACACTV.