The Portage Collegiate Trojans have come back down to earth after an incredible start to the season. The Trojans fell in their last outing 4-2 against the W.C. Miller Aces, which was their first loss of the year. Head coach Dave Van Deynze says they needed to bring more energy at the beginning of the game.

"I think we had a bit of a rough start, they were up 3-0 on us early in the game, and we were able to battle back," says Van Deyzne. "That was the message after the game, hockey is a three-period game. I thought we were the better team in the last two periods but it was just a little too much to overcome."

Prior to Thursday's loss, PCI had a record of 4-0 and had outscored their opponents 39-4 during that stretch. They have been led statistically by forward, Alex Van Deynze, who has scored seven goals and added 12 assists for 19 points, with Layne Rands and Ashton Hlady not far behind with 16 and 15 points respectively. Those three forwards are three of the top four scorers in the league currently.

Coach Van Deynze says they took care of business to begin the year.

"A couple of the teams we played weren't quite as good as the Aces," Van Deynze explains. "We had two really good battles against Carman and came out on the right side of those. So, we just need to get the effort going consistently for 60 minutes, if we do that we'll be on the right side of things."

He notes they have this week off to focus on practice. Van Deynze describes what they will be tweaking ahead of their next game against the Mountain Mustangs.

"We have to battle and there are a few things we need to clean up in our own end. Sometimes we struggle at getting the puck out of our zone, so we're going to work on that," says Van Deynze. "We see some work to do in the faceoff department but if we clean up those things we'll be ready to go."

The Trojans will be back in action on Friday, November 12 as they hit the road to Swan Lake and take on the Mustangs.