It is with mixed emotions that the Laurentian Voyageurs men’s soccer team will take to the field this Wednesday afternoon, playing host to the Carleton Ravens in a first round OUA playoff battle (1:00 p.m. start time now confirmed).
The excitement of the team garnering their first home post-season game in 13 years will be offset against the backdrop of the sad news of the passing of long-time L.U. Athletic Director Peter Hellstrom this past weekend.
A graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University and alumnus of the Golden Hawks’ men’s hockey program, Hellstrom succumbed to a four year battle with cancer having dedicated more than three decades of his life to the Voyageurs varsity athletics family.
A hockey man first and foremost, the 59 year-old Sudbury native still held strong ties to the sport of soccer, with both of his daughters (Jenna and Karly) having competed with the Kent State Golden Flashes of the NCAA, the former having returned to her school in a coaching capacity.
One can be sure that Peter, who was a fixture at a good number of the Laurentian home soccer games over the years, will be looking down, smiling and cheering on a squad that posted a regular season winning record (5-2-5) for the first time since 2017.
“The group has come together, they’ve gelled,” said first year head coach Brendan Teeling. “I think we’ve grown, I think we’ve evolved. I think the players have developed and accepted their roles. Players have come in and played their part.”
“It has been very much a squad rotation.”
After surrendering thirty goals against over the course of a 12 game schedule last ball, the 2026 Laurentian lads limited the opposition to less than a goal a game this year, beaten for just 11 goals against.
“I think that a lot of the goals that we’ve conceded are off set pieces – and it’s something we need to continue to work on,” said Teeling. “We’ve tightened up defensively, we’ve had multiple clean sheets. Overall, we’ve improved in all areas of the field. I am pretty happy with our goal difference (GF – 22; GA – 11).”
For as proud as he is of the progress and results that his team has displayed in his first few months in Sudbury, Teeling also knows that it could have been even better. “We should be higher in the table than we are,” he said, his team sliding into fourth place in the OUA East Division grouping of nine teams.
“We didn’t take our chances at times. The margins are fine. But if everything went our way, which is not going to happen in football or sport, we could be first or second. That is a reality.”
While Teeling and company are not about to forego the opportunity to take on Carleton at home rather than making the five plus hour trek to Ottawa, the simple truth is that playing in Sudbury only partially helps this particular version of Voyageurs. “Honestly, our pitch doesn’t help us,” said Teeling.
“We played way better football last weekend against Toronto and TMU on their pitch because it is turf. Saying that, we don’t have to travel and it is our home.”
“It’s exciting to host it,” Teeling added. “Let’s hope that we can get a good crowd to the game.”
A 6-4-2 record for the Ravens is a touch misleading, as Carleton squeaked past Laurentian 1-0 in Sudbury only to drop the contest by forfeiture when they self-declared the use of an ineligible player. Teeling, for one, is well aware of just how tough this challenge will be.
“We’ve done really well but I still don’t think we’ll be favoured, even if we have the home game,” he said. “I’ll just focus on us: on our guys, on our process, ensuring that we are as organized as we can be.”
“Hopefully we can build on this momentum going into the off-season.”
