After narrowly missing the play-off round in the London Early Bird tournament, the Lakers were looking to advance further this past weekend in Hamilton. They did just that by reeling off 6 straight wins en route to capturing the championship.
Game 1 vs Guelph Jr. Storm
The Lakers would meet Guelph for the 2nd time this season and would go to work in the 1st period with Grant McPherson setting up Jared Nash for a 1-0 lead. The Storm would tie things up by the end of the 1st period. There would only be 1 goal in the 2nd period when Keaton Middleton, Chayse Herrfort and Brent West would put together a pretty 3 way passing play that West would end up finishing to give the Lakers a 2-1 lead. In the 3rd period the Lakers would score twice more; Herrfort on a pass from Middleton and Nash would get his 2nd goal on a feed from West. Wyatt Nicholson would get the win in net for the Lakers. MVP of the game was awarded to Brent West. Final score, 4-1 Lakers.
Game 2 vs Brantford 99ers
This would turn out to be a low scoring affair as both teams played a strong defensive back checking style of game. Jared Nash would score first, finishing off a nice passing play between Brent West and Chayse Herrfort. There would be no scoring in the 2nd period but Brantford would reply with a goal just 1 ½ minutes into the 3rd period. The third period would be back and forth before the Lakers would finally take the lead on a goal by West from Herrfort with only 1:48 remaining. Tristan Lewis would pick up the win in net for the Lakers. MVP of the game was awarded to Brent West. Final score, 2-1 Lakers.
Game 3 vs Greater Kingston Jr Frontenacs
The Lakers would get on the scoreboard early with goals from Keaton Middleton and Jared Nash. Assisting would be Luka Marinic, MacKinnon Hawkins, Jon Baker and Brent West. The Laker power play would then make it 3-0 when Chayse Herrfort would convert on a set up from Jacob Hrudka and West.
In the 2nd period, Nash would score his 2nd goal with and assist going to Justin McCarter to extend the lead to 4-0. Kingston would respond before the end of the period however to close the gap to 4-1. Grant McPherson would get rolling in the 3rd period scoring two goals with McCarter drawing 2 assists and Hrudka helping on one of the goals. The Lakers seemed to relax a little and Kingston would capitalize near the end of the period and get 2 goals back, one coming on a power play. Wyatt Nicholson shut the door after that and would get the win in goal with the MVP being awarded to Jared Nash. Final score, 6-3 Lakers.
Game 4 vs Mississauga Senators
Having beat the Senators 5-0 previously in the London tournament, the Lakers anticipated a much more motivated Sens team for this match up. It would prove to be a very physical game with the Senators throwing many body checks early in the game. The Lakers would respond with some physical play of their own with some good clean body checks being handed out from Nick Jung, Chayse Herrfort and Justin McCarter. The Lakers would draw first blood in the opening period when West would head man the puck to Herrfort, who would then deliver a nice across the crease pass to Jon Baker who made no mistake giving the Lakers the lead. In the second period, Herrfort would receive the puck down low in the corner from Baker and battle to the front of the net sliding home a backhander to put the Lakers up 2-0. In the 3rd period the Lakers would get many scoring chances, especially after a Sens player received a 5 minute checking from behind penalty, but the Lakers could not solve the Sens goalie. Tristan Lewis would get the win in net and Jon Baker would be awarded the MVP. Final score, 2-0 Lakers.
Semi-Final vs Kanata Blazers
Early Monday morning (8am), the 1st place Lakers would play 4th place Kanata, with the winner going to the championship game. Chayse Herrfort would open the scoring in the 1st period with Keenan Conlon and Jon Baker assisting. The Lakers would never look back from that point on and would score again in the 1st on a power play. Baker would get the goal with assists going to Herrfort and Ian Vanden Heuvel. In the 2nd period, Baker would score again when Herrfort would sprint past a Blazer defenseman picking up a high arcing backhand from Conlon and slide it across to Baker who would score to make the score 3-0. In the 3rd period Vanden Heuvel would prove a point that the Laker coaches have been emphasizing all year..... get pucks to the net! Playing short handed and with a line change in progress, Vanden Heuvel would take a slap shot from centre that would deflect off a Blazer defenseman's skate and beat the Blazer goalie five-hole. Keaton Middleton would finish with an unassisted, gritty hardworking goal when he battled his way out of the corner and cut out in front of the net jamming the puck in short side. Wyatt Nicholson would make some timely saves in picking up the shut out with Keenan Conlon being awarded the MVP. Final score, 5-0 Lakers.
Final vs Brantford 99ers
Brantford came out flying and it was obvious that they wanted to avenge their earlier round robin loss to the Lakers. The only goal scored in the 1st period would go to Brantford. Midway through the 2nd period, the Lakers would get a power play opportunity and would make good on it as Chayse Herrfort would give a crisp pass to Jared Nash in the slot who would one time the shot only to have the Brantford goalie make the save. However, Brent West driving hard to the net would grab the rebound and patiently backhand it into the open net to tie the score at 1-1.
The Lakers would soon find themselves in penalty trouble later in the period and a Brantford player would outskate 3 Laker defenders before beating Tristan Lewis with a hard, low shot. The score at the end of the 2nd period would remain at 2-1 for Brantford. Coming from behind for the entire game thus far, the Lakers would again draw even in the 3rd period when Herrfort and West would set up Baker to tie the score at 2-2. The Lakers would then take their first lead of the game when Herrfort would score on the power play assisted by Nick Jung. The lead would be short lived however, as Brantford would draw even with 5:43 left to play. Nicole Zabel saved her best game of the tournament for the finals, thwarting many Brantford rushes with some physical play but she would get called on a very debatable body check penalty with less than 2 minutes to play. Lewis would come up big on the penalty kill for the Lakers, kicking out several game ending opportunities by the Brantford forwards.
In sudden death overtime the Lakers still needed to kill off the remainder of the penalty and once again Lewis was able to slam the door on Brantford. Then with 6:55 left in the overtime period Keenan Conlon would bank a pass to Nash who would drive to the net only to have the Brantford defenders fall in their attempt to knock him off the puck and thereby allow him to send a pass out front to Luka Marinic who buried it, sealing the win for the Lakers! Final score, 4-3 for Huron Perth. The Best Defenseman Award was given to MacKinnon Hawkins while Chayse Herrfort earned MVP honours.
The Minor Peewees current winning streak has now been stretched to 12 games as they go into action this weekend. Come watch them on Laker Day this Saturday @ 3pm as they host Kitchener at the Maitland Rec Centre in Goderich and also host to Hamilton Reps on Sunday @ 4pm in Goderich.