The Major Bantam Lakers played a short 2 of 3 play-off series against the Kitchener Rangers last weekend to see who would advance to play against the Hamilton Reps.
Game 1: Feb. 13 in St. Marys
The first game in this series would be a goalfest with a eleven goals scored. The Rangers scored first with the only goal of the first period: a short-handed marker.
The second period saw the Rangers stretch their lead to 2-0 with a goal in the first minute of the period. The Lakers responded with their first goal of the game when
PJ Conlon scored with assists going to
Jared Zufelt and
Nick Castell. The see sawing continued as the Rangers then scored to make it 3-1. The Lakers again responded with a goal as Conlon scored his second of the period (assists to Zufelt and
Iain Donnelly). Once again, the Rangers scored though to make it 4-2 at the end of the second.
Faced with a two goal deficit at the start of the third the Lakers knew they needed to get a couple goals early. That’s just what they did as they scored twice in the first half dozen minutes. Goal #3 for the Lakers came from Zufelt (assisted by
Jayden Landry) and the tying goal came courtesy of Castell (assisted by
Greg Williams). With about 9 minutes to go, the score was tied at 4’s. The Rangers kept coming, however, and restored their two goal lead with a couple goals in the next minute or so. With less than five minutes to go, the Lakers narrowed the gap to just a goal when Landry scored with assists to Donnelly and
Mackinley O’Keefe. That would be it for this game, however, as the Lakers dropped the first game 6-5 to the Rangers.
Game 2: Feb. 15 in Kitchener
The two teams met again a couple nights later in Kitchener. The Lakers got off to a good start in the first period with lots of energy and pressure. As a result, the Rangers took a pair of penalties at about the halfway point to give the Lakers a full 2 minute 5 on 3. Unfortunately, it was to be a night when the power play just wasn’t clicking and the Lakers failed to capitalize on this opportunity or another power play that came a few minutes later. The Rangers scored in the final minutes of the period to take a 1-0 lead even though the Lakers had outshot the Rangers 11-4 in the period.
In the first minute of the second period, the Lakers gave up a goal on the Rangers’ first power play to fall behind 2-0. The second period was the Rangers’ chance to pressure and they outshot the Lakers 13-4 to carry their 2-0 lead into the third.
In the third period, the Rangers were able to stretch their lead to 3-0 with a goal midway through the period. With a few minutes to go, the Lakers pulled their goalie in favour of the extra attacker to try and get back into the game. Unfortunately, the Rangers were able to add an empty net goal with just over a minute to go and the game ended with the Lakers suffering a 4-0 loss.
The Rangers now advance to play the Hamilton Reps in the Play-off semi-finals.
Although the Lakers season has ended earlier than they’d hoped, the players and staff can take pride in the successes they've had this year. It was a considerable improvement over the last two seasons and saw many firsts for the 1995 age, including most regular season wins and points as well as advancing beyond the first round of the playdowns. A solid foundation has been laid for next year’s team to build on.
A big thank-you to
Head Coach Mich Landry and his staff for all the work they’ve done this year. It has been very appreciated by both the players and the parents.