The stands were busy at the Bold Center Saturday night for the exhibition game between the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference Portage College Voyageurs and the visiting Korea University Tigers.
A crowd of about 400 took in the game, many waving Korean flags and wearing Tigers' jerseys. The game is third of nine games the Korean student-athletes will be playing in Alberta over the next month in an exhibition series. The Saturday night matchup against the Voyageurs gave the Tigers their first win of the tour, beating Portage 7-3. The entertaining game featured a fast-skating a precise Korean team that was matched for the first two periods of play by a Voyageurs squad made up with more than half a bench of first-year players.
The Tigers went into the third period up 4-3, but gained momentum towards the end of the game, scoring their last goal, and empty-netter with 90 seconds to play.
Following the final whistle, the teams, officials and coaching staff joined for a group photo at centre ice as fans in the crowd waved flags and cheered.
Next up
The exhibition tour is part of a bid for the Korea University team to join the ACAC. The initial proposal would see members of the team live and learn in the Calgary area, taking their Korea University programs from a satellite campus. The proposal is still being discussed by league officials and teams.
The next game for the Voyageurs is January 26, a home game against the Red Deer Polytechnic. The next game on the Tigers' tour schedule is Wednesday against Augustana.
