{"id":102189,"date":"2026-02-23T08:35:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T13:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=102189"},"modified":"2026-02-23T08:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T13:35:30","slug":"voyageurs-in-down-to-the-wire-playoff-push-lean-on-indigenous-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/23\/voyageurs-in-down-to-the-wire-playoff-push-lean-on-indigenous-talent\/","title":{"rendered":"Voyageurs in down-to-the-wire playoff push lean on Indigenous talent"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0By Aaron Walker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com When Portage College men\u2019s hockey assistant coach Pierre Sparklingeyes looks back on the Voyageurs\u2019 January exhibition series against the Chinese national men\u2019s team, he doesn\u2019t remember the ceremony of the event. He remembers the pace of the games and what they demanded from a roster drawn largely from northern and rural communities, including Indigenous student-athletes. \u201cThat team just came at us and at us,\u201d Sparklingeyes told Windspeaker during an interview in Moose Jaw, Sask. on Feb. 13. The series forced his team to \u201ckeep battling through the full 60 minutes of each game.\u201d Portage split the two-game set at the Bold Centre in Lac La Biche, Alta. winning 6\u20135 on Jan. 23 before dropping the rematch 3\u20131 on Jan. 24. Sparklingeyes is… <\/p>\n

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\u00a0By Aaron Walker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com When Portage College men\u2019s hockey assistant coach Pierre Sparklingeyes looks back on the Voyageurs\u2019 January exhibition series against the Chinese national men\u2019s team, he doesn\u2019t remember the ceremony of the event. He remembers the pace of the games and what they demanded from a roster drawn largely from northern and rural communities, including Indigenous student-athletes. \u201cThat team just came at us and at us,\u201d Sparklingeyes told Windspeaker during an interview in Moose Jaw, Sask. on Feb. 13. The series forced his team to \u201ckeep battling through the full 60 minutes of each game.\u201d Portage split the two-game set at the Bold Centre in Lac La Biche, Alta. winning 6\u20135 on Jan. 23 before dropping the rematch 3\u20131 on Jan. 24. Sparklingeyes is... <\/p>\n

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Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"\nVoyageurs in down-to-the-wire playoff push lean on Indigenous talent - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/23\/voyageurs-in-down-to-the-wire-playoff-push-lean-on-indigenous-talent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Voyageurs in down-to-the-wire playoff push lean on Indigenous talent - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0By Aaron Walker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com When Portage College men\u2019s hockey assistant coach Pierre Sparklingeyes looks back on the Voyageurs\u2019 January exhibition series against the Chinese national men\u2019s team, he doesn\u2019t remember the ceremony of the event. 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