The Minor Midget Lakers headed into play this weekend
looking to secure themselves a place in the Alliance playoffs with just 4 games
remaining in the regular season.
On Saturday, the London Jr. Knights came calling at the
Rotary. London is currently sitting in third spot and has had the Lakers
number all season and they jumped out to an early lead in this one when their
defenseman was able to walk off the boards and into the slot for a wicked
wrister over Carter Roth’s glove and into the top corner. The teams traded
powerplays later in the period, but there was no further scoring.
The second period also yielded no goals for either
team. The Laker powerplay had another chance but wasn’t able to
convert. Offensive zone time seemed to be at a premium with much of the
play in transition during the frame. Roth made some key saves to keep the
Lakers in the hunt.
The Huron-Perth boys had their best chance at the tying goal
early in the third with a flurry of action around the London net but the bounce
did not go our way. Shortly thereafter, the Jr. Knights would come alive,
spurred by a pretty obvious missed offside call that led directly to a London
goal. Despite protestation from the Laker bench and fans, the goal stood
and the deficit doubled to two goals. From there, London asserted control
and netted three more to take the game by a score of 5-0. Despite the
loss, the Lakers showed some feistiness down the stretch, surely borne out of
frustration of not being able to score.
The Lakers final road game of the regular season saw the
team head to Kitchener on Sunday afternoon to face the Jr. Rangers. For
the second day in a row, the lads were looking for some points to secure that
playoff spot. With Kitchener still in the mix and sitting behind us in
the standings, this one meant something to both teams.
The goal-scoring mini-drought came to an end just over 2
minutes in when Sheldon Pryce walked out of the corner and beat the Rangers
goalie to stake the Lakers to a one-goal lead. Jack Becker with the
assist. Not long after, AP player Noah
Russen-Steele controlled the puck in the offensive zone and fed
Blake Wideman streaking in from the bench. Wideman paused and fired it
through the goalie to double the lead.
The officiating again became a big part of the game with questionable
penalties to both teams. Wideman, having just scored, was sent off for a
head check and then ejected after discussion. A five minute major was
assessed, maybe aided by the apparent injury suffered by the Kitchener
player. Down a man for five whole minutes was made worse when D-man
Coleson Fischer was given a slashing penalty, putting the Lakers down 2 men for
an extended period. Laker goalie Garrett Golley faced an onslaught and
turned aside several quality chances, allowing his teammates to ice the puck
several times. It was clear that Kitchener’s game plan was to get to the goalie
on every shot, taking and extra jab on every cover. However, Carter Schoonderwoerd had perhaps
the best scoring chance while short-handed, blasting a shot just over the
crossbar off the rush. The first period ended with the Lakers up by two.
The Rangers managed to get on the board early in the second
with a shot over Golley’s glove to cut the lead to one. After trading
head check penalties back and forth, Pryce narrowly missed a goal when his shot
went just high. The Lakers were able to restore the two goal lead on a
delayed penalty call after several Lakers teamed up to keep control of the puck
eventually leading to a Schoonderwoerd goal. The Rangers would again
respond on a backdoor pass on an odd-man rush that was shoveled past
Golley. 3-2 Lakers end of two periods of play.
Desperate to close out the win, Huron-Perth managed to
increase their lead in the third when Jack Robinson head-manned the puck to
Schoonderwoerd who appeared to lose the puck in the one-on-one battle and then
regained control with his long reach and then almost casually slid it five-hole
through the Kitchener keeper. Some good defensive play and huge shot
blocks by the Laker D core of Van Boekel, Fischer, Gangl, Mumby and Robinson
down the stretch kept the lead intact. Final score Lakers 4, Rangers 2.
Now the focus turns to improving playoff positioning.
With 2 games left next weekend, the Lakers can push for as high as the fifth
seed. Back to practice this week to get ready for the final regular
season weekend.