After a championship weekend at the Oshawa Spirit Challenge tournament the Lakers Major Peewees headed to Kitchener on January 14th for a mid week road game with a share of first place on the line. With some illness running through the club the Lakers would need to dig deep for this game.
The Lakers came out of the dressing room ready to play. Once the puck was dropped the Lakers forced the play immediately and the puck was bouncing all around the Rangers' net.
Bayley Boyes took control and jammed home the bouncing puck putting the Lakers up 1-0 ten seconds into the game. Two minutes into the game
Roland McKeown started the play from behind his own net with a pass up the wall to
Gregory Swan. He quickly hit
McKeown with a fine pass up the middle of the ice.
McKeown flew past the Rangers' defenders, cut towards the net and drove the second Lakers goal into the net. Near the end of the period the Rangers finally solved goalie
Eric Ryan making the score 2-1.
The second period started with both teams going end to end…during this first exchange of scoring chances
Ryan had to make a great butterfly save. At the twelve minute marker,
Nathan Templeman and
McKeown were down low working the fore check.
Taylor Moir picked up a loose puck and directed a shot towards the net. After a friendly deflection the puck dropped into the Rangers net putting the Lakers up 3-1. One minute later the Rangers cut the lead to 3-2. Defenseman
Carter Stewart was a force during a couple of penalty kills.
In the third period
Ryan was called upon to make a few exceptional saves. With nine minutes to play a Ranger forward went in all alone on
Ryan….but
Ryan followed the play perfectly and made the save. With less than a minute to play the Rangers pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. Again
Ryan had to make a game saving stop with 25 seconds to play. As the time ticked down
Alex Peters out fought the Ranger forward to lift the puck out to centre ice.
Brody Tenpas quickly picked up the puck and directed it into the empty net making the final score 4-2. This was a hard fought game and a well deserved victory for the Lakers.
The Lakers complete their Alliance league schedule with a couple of road games this weekend.