Lakers played Great in Rochester!!!!, News, Minor Atom, 2011-12 (Huron Perth Lakers)

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Feb 06, 2012 | sahewitt | 923 views
Lakers played Great in Rochester!!!!
The Minor Atoms took their turn travelling over to Rochester to have a great tournament as well as great times off the ice!!!

Game # 1 in the Rochester Invitational saw the Lakers take on Rochester Monarchs to open the tournament very early Fri morning that saw the Lakers come away with a 2-1 victory.  Schooley got things going with a bullet from just inside the blue line off a feed from Leis.  The game winner was a beautiful skip pass from Aarts to McCann early in the 2nd and the Lakers defence shut to door limiting the Monarch's chances to seal the victory. MVP of the game was Zac McCann
   
     Game # 2 the Lakers faced Rideau St Lawrence after a long layoff from the morning game and the opportunity to view the morning skate of the AHL Rochester Americans, the players got to meet former NHLer and London Knight, Stratford native Chris Taylor.  but the long layoff proved to be tough to shake for the Lakers as we found ourselves in a 5-1 hole heading to the 3rd.  The boys did send the message though that they would not quit and fought back to 5-4 to set up an exciting  last 2 mins of the game many chances to tie it up.  McCann started the scoring, followed by Crowley on a 3 on 1 break.  Weber scored the 3rd. Gaylor score the 4th on a heads up play from the blue line side stepping a defender and blasting a shot right through the Rideau tender.  In a game that saw the refs very stingy handing out assists Gaylor and Hotson got "official" credit but Dunn, Robinson, Pryce and Coultes deserved to be on the sheet as well. MVP of the game was Mason Weber
   
    Game # 3 bright and early once again the Lakers drew the host Rochester Americans and were fired and ready scoring 2 goals a period taking the 6-1 victory. McCann 3 G 2 A, Pryce 2 G and Schooley G bulged the twine for the Lakers with other assists going to Hotson 2A and Robinson.  MVP of the game was Kayden Schooley.  The victory pushed the Lakers to 3rd in the Conference setting up the quarter final rematch with Rideau.
   
    Game # 4 again after waiting all day to play the Lakers took a team walk and got their mojo together just itching to revenge of the earlier tournament loss.  The Lakers came out flying and set Rideau on their heels with Hotson drawing 1st blood on a set up from Gaylor.  After Rideau took the lead early in the 3rd 2-1 McCann finished off the highlight passing play of the season that began with Dunn to McCann to Hotson and back McCann. With McCann scoring our 3rd to tie it up and set the stage for the exciting last 7 minutes of the 3rd, with the game knotted and overtime tension so thick that fans couldn't even watch, the game needed to be decided by everyone's favourite ..... the shoot out. McCann scored to started the shoot out, Rideau's 1st shooter was stopped and the ref signaling no goal the Lakers looked to go up 2-0 in the shoot out but the decision was overturned after a long drawn out discussion that saw Rideau coaches enter the ice surface to dispute.  After the dust settled Hotson scored 2-1.  Rideau's 3rd shooter tied it up and off to sudden death shoot outs.  With neither 4th shooters finishing it off, Weber flew in and whistled the puck off the cross bar and in giving Kints to make 1 save and send the Lakers through to the semis. The Rideau player faked and missed as the Lakers clinched the victory. Game MVP was Dylan Kints
   
     Game # 5 saw the Lakers again started quick against Niagara but a ridiculous American hockey rule of not "pegging" in the nets  that caused havoc all tournament for every team, McCann broke in and deked out the tender as the puck was dislodged by the goalie and the puck sitting on the line Hotson banged it in.  After a long dispute the Lakers needed to score the 1st goal of the game again 35 seconds later by Pryce. In the a semi final game that the officials struggled to ever get control they let every thing go and the game turned into a free for all with bodies flying everywhere and players getting hurt on both sides.  The Lakers 2nd goal was another blister from Weber from Pryce. McCann scored the 3rd from Schooley and Pryce capped off his stellar performance with the 4th from Hotson and McCann but in the end it wasn't enough as the Lakers fell.
 
    Great weekend for this group playing on championship Sunday and providing the Lakers fans with at times too much excitement but left the fans and coaching staff impressed with a bunch of boys that went to war for each other.  a special mention of the great work from Braeden McNaughton jumping to the wing for the 1st time in 3 years and provided muscle along the boards and was very effective every game.
 
Darren Kints
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