The Minor Midgets faced off against the second place
Brantford 99ers on Sunday afternoon at the Rotary Complex.
After a very busy previous weekend with six games in total
at the Waterloo Gold Puck, this past weekend was very light in comparison with
only the one game on the schedule. However, it began a busy week and an
important part of the schedule that sees the Lakers take on some difficult
opponents. Brantford rolled into Stratford as one of the top teams in the
Alliance thus far and had previously handed the Lakers a loss in their only
meeting to this point of the season. Needless to say, a big 2 points was
at stake.
By all accounts the game started a little sluggishly for
both teams, with Brantford holding the early lead in shots. A late period
Laker powerplay yielded nothing and there was no scoring through the first
period. Midway through the second period, the 99ers were able to break the
stalemate when the Lakers got pinned down in their own end and weren’t able to
clear the zone on a number of chances. Eventually, Brantford found the shot
they were looking for and took the lead 1-0. Shortly after the goal, the Lakers
found themselves down a man when defenceman Austin Mumby was called for
interference (that being the favourite call of the day for the refs). The
Lakers did a fine job on the kill and in fact drew Brantford into a penalty in
front of the net where Chad Brown was cross-checked as he worked to keep the
net-front clear. Huron-Perth found the tying goal before the end of the
period off the stick of alternate-captain Bobby Leis who banged home a
rebound. Tied at 1 was how the teams entered the break.
The pace of the game accelerated considerably as the third
period began. Laker goalie Garrett Golley was crashed into in the first
minute of play and a goalie interference call against the 99ers put the Lakers
back on the powerplay. On the ensuing man-advantage Blake Wideman had a
wonderful opportunity to bury the go-ahead goal, but the Brantford goalie was
able to come across the crease and deny the chance. It was Brantford who
took the lead at the 10 minute mark of the period when the Brantford winger
drilled a shot home off the rush. It was time to dig deep and find a way
to tie things up. Yet another interference call against Brantford lead to the
Lakers second goal. It was Leis again, on a pass from Wideman. Then
minutes later the Lakers finally took the lead when Leis broke in alone.
His attempt was stopped, but he stayed with it and dumped the puck back out front
to Wideman who made no mistake on this one, hammering it through the
goalie. As usual, some tense minutes down the stretch with some big
blocks by the D. Finally, with the goalie out, Carter Schoonderwoerd sealed the
game with an empty-net goal. Golley shut the door on several high-quality
chances, finishing with 33 saves on the afternoon. A great comeback win
and a huge confidence boost to take 2 points from a tough foe.
A busy week in Laker-land with a rare Tuesday night game at
home against the Waterloo Wolves and then another home game Friday against the
league-leading (but recently shown to be vulnerable) Cambridge Hawks. The
boys will finish up the pre-Christmas schedule with a trip to Komoka on
Saturday to take on the Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs. Some big points out there
for the taking – go get ‘em Lakers!