U16 Lakers take care of business on the road

The Huron-Perth U16 AAA Lakers travelled to the southwest corner of Ontario for their two road games against the Sun County Panthers and the Windsor Jr. Spitfires.

Head coach Jason Brooks says the team's priority is to properly execute their game plan to pick up the wins over the weekend.

“We just must focus on us right now. I mean, we know both teams are outstanding, very competitive, and have some talented individual players, but we have to execute our game. We got to execute our details and our systems and manage the puck, make good puck decisions,” Brooks said.

“We don't have possession of the puck. We want to make sure we defend well, get back on the side, put people up and obviously, get possession back so you can get the puck in the offensive zone and hopefully get some balls.”

Power forward Joseph Haskett says he emulates his game after Brady Martin of the Soo Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League. Haskett says the focus is to provide.

“Just to say, I want to take it as far as I can and maybe try to get my school paid for,” Haskett said.

On Jan. 24, the Lakers travelled to Leamington to face the Sun County Panthers.

Blake Moore opened the scoring for the Lakers early in the first period with his third of the season from Callum Brooks and Declan McCotter. The Panthers tied the game 3:50 into the second period, but it was all uphill from there for the Lakers.

Ethan Bridges notched his 10th of the season from McCotter and Brooks at the halfway mark of the middle frame, followed by Brooks scoring his 17th of the season from McCotter and Moore with four seconds remaining in the period to give the visitors a 3-1 lead after two periods.

The Lakers continued the goal-scoring barrage in the third as Moore got his second of the game, 39 seconds into the period, from Colten Van Geffen and Evan Fisher. Bridges scored his second and third goals of the game in under a minute apart, and an unassisted goal by Tanner Luczka capped off the 7-1 rout over the Panthers.

Brooks and McCotter each led the Lakers with four points, while Fisher led the team with the hat trick. In total, eight different Lakers registered a point in the win. Netminder Rylan Da Costa picked up the win in net.

The following day, the Lakers headed to Windsor for their matchup with the Jr. Spitfires.

McCotter notched his 25th of the season from Moore and Van Geffen to open the scoring for the Lakers 25 seconds into the first period. The score remained 1-0 until Windsor responded with the goal of their own in the second period, and the game headed into the third period at one apiece.

Windsor took the lead 4:49 into the third period, but Bridges from Fisher and McCotter on the powerplay at the halfway point of the third period tied the game for the visitors. The Lakers restored their one-goal lead after Haskett notched his seventh of the season from Fisher and Mathieu Lepan with 8:34 remaining.

McCotter from Fisher and Sullivan Kipfer, with 7:08 remaining, provided insurance for the Lakers, and Haskett’s second of the game with 5:13 left sealed the game for the Lakers. McCotter and Fisher led the team with three points each, and nine different Lakers tallied a point in the win. Tyler Wilkinson got the win between the pipes for the Lakers.

With the sweep, the Lakers took over first place in the ALLIANCE U16 league standings, one point ahead of the London Jr. Knights, their next opponent on Feb. 1 at the Stratford Rotary Complex.