The Festival Inn Bantam AAA Lakers finished off the Hamilton Reps on Friday night to sweep the Best of 5 opening round playdown series 3 games to 0 in dominating fashion.
Derek Cowing (Embro) opened the scoring for the Lakers from
Nik McIver (Stratford) after corralling the point shot & sneeking it past a sprawling Hamilton netminder. Before the end of the period,
Garrett Meurs (Ripley) picked up the puck in the defensive zone and, showing no ill affects from a minor injury suffered just over a week ago, went coast to coast and rifled the puck into the top corner to give the Lakers a 2-0 lead.
In the 2nd, the home team continued a dominating performance with Cowing scoring his 2nd of the game on the power play after converting on a nice 3-way passing play from
David Dalby (Stratford) &
Ryan Chambers (Teeswater). Less than 2 minutes later,
Mac Nichol (Listowel) went in untouched & found the bottom corner for the unassisted marker to give the Lakers a 4-0 led. Before the end of the period,
George Armstrong (Wingham) went hard to the net & was rewarded with a perfectly placed saucer pass from Dalby to put the Lakers up by 5 goals going into the final frame with Meurs earning an assist on the play.
The flood between periods seemed to cool the Lakers off slightly as Hamilton was able to capitalize quickly to break the goose egg on the visitors' side of the scoreboard. That is as close as the game would get as the Lakers played smart defensive hockey for the remainder of the game to earn the 5-1 victory & series sweep.
Jake Partridge was rarely tested in net but stayed completely focused throughout to earn the win.
The team will now meet Kitchener in the next round with the winner advancing to the League Semi-Finals against the patiently waiting Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs. London & Sun County will face off in the other series with the winner meeting Brantford in the other League Semi-Final.
Lakers Schedule vs. Kitchener:
Friday February 1 @ Hensall & District Community Center- 7pm
Saturday February 2 @ Kitchener, Grand River Arena- 4:15pm
Sunday February 3 @ Goderich MRC- 2:30pm