The Lakers Minor Bantams traveled to Hamilton on the Thanksgiving weekend to participate in the 23rd annual Tim Hortons International Invitational Tournament.
The Lakers first game was against Ajax-Pickering on Saturday morning. In mid-September, the Lakers handily beat the Raiders 3-1 at the Ajax-Pickering tourney. This game was much different. A combination of undisciplined play and a strong Ajax powerplay resulted in a 3-0 loss. In total, the Lakers received twenty minutes in penalties and allowed all three goals on the power play. Positively,
Joe Metzger was outstanding in net, stopping 35 of 38 shots.
The Lakers did not have much time to rest before facing the highly ranked Sudbury Wolves. With a shuffled lineup, the boys started slow against the talented Wolves. After the first, the Lakers were down 1-0 and outshot 10-2. The game turned with some excellent saves by rookie goalie
Graeme Lauersen. Early in the 2nd,
Jared Zufelt connected on a nice feed from
Greg Williams. Shortly after,
Iain Donnelly rocketed in a shot to make it 2-1.
Jayden Landry and
PJ Conlon assisted. Early in the 3rd, Sudbury tied the game on the powerplay. Not deterred, the Lakers increased the pressure and dominated the third. The continuous pressure paid off as Zufelt raced away in the last minute scoring on a breakaway after a clever pass from
Mike Siddall. The Lakers outshot the Wolves 19-9 in the last two periods and came away with some new found confidence.
On Sunday morning, the Lakers faced the undefeated Ohio Blue Jackets. The Lakers started strong and carried the play in the 1st period. The Jackets opened the scoring early in the second to take a 1-0 lead. The game continued with fast end to end action. Late in the 2nd, Siddall scored on a powerplay from
Braydon Blight and Donnelly. The 3rd period featured seven goals. Unfortunately, the Lakers were on the short end, scoring three to the Jackets four. 3rd period goals were scored by PJ Conlon,
Carter Strachan and Zufelt. Blight,
Drew Wood,
Mathew McCracken, Landry and Williams picked up assists. The final was 5-4 for Ohio. For the goal challenged Lakers, the offensive display was very welcomed.
In the 4th game, the Lakers faced the St. Catherines Falcons needing a win for a shot at advancing to the semi-final. Both teams came out aggressive and exchanged good scoring chances.
Greg Orr, playing forward, was robbed by the Falcons goalie early in the first. The Lakers old nemesis, the penalty box, turned momentum in favor of the quick Falcons. The Falcons scored midway through the 1st and added insurance goals in the 2nd and 3rd to take the game 3-0. Despite a heroic effort from
Brett Stacey who was playing with an injured groin, the remaining Lakers played a passive 2nd half of the game and let the Falcons dominate along the boards.
Overall, it was a very positive tournament for the Minor Bantams. When disciplined and out of the penalty box, they competed and excelled against some very tough opponents. Most impressively, the defence of Blight,
Carter Simpson, Strachan,
Mackinley O'Keefe and Donnelly were excellent in defensive zone coverage and on the breakout. The offense showed they can score against some of the toughest teams in North America. As usual, the goalie tandem of Metzger and Lauersen was outstanding.
The Minor Bantams will get back to work this week fine tuning their one on one play and sharpening up the power play and penalty killing units. They have three tough Alliance league games over the next two weeks before heading to Chicago for the
Nike Bauer invite. Slowly but surely, this team is starting to believe they can compete with anyone. The coaches are cautiously optimistic that these boys will soon go on a tear and run off a long win streak.