It was the underdog C2 Lakers who emerged with a defiant 8-2 win in the hometown clash between the C1 and C2 pee wee Lakers teams at the Cowichan Lake Sports Arena on Dec. 3.
The C1 team, now 5-2 on the Mid-Island Hockey League campaign, were facing a 2-3 C2 squad. Going into the contest the C1 clearly held the upperhand on paper. This was not the case on the ice, however.
“I was thinking they were going to take us,” said C2 head coach, Mark Martin after the game.
Martin was equally happy with his defensive and offensive cores.
“We generated a lot of opportunities,” said Martin. “We played hard as a team. Everybody played their position and worked hard. No one gave up. Our defence was solid as usual and they played great.”
Martin’s son, Luke is one of the C2 Lakers’ forwards and he collected a hat-trick in the morning game. C2 Lakers’ captain, Nick Brown accounted for four other of his team’s goals in the win. Nathan Bath had the pee wee Lakers C2 team’s other lamp-lighter in the early morning match.
“It was pretty good. Our team played great and they passed a lot,” said the younger Martin.
Despite the loss, C1 head coach, Greg Clayton was still pleased with his team’s efforts.
“I think our team played really well we just didn’t have a lot of the second steps involved I think our kids were standing back a little bit when they should have been going forward and going after the puck a little bit more,” he said.
Clayton thought his unit could have displayed a little more offensive audacity.
“We played a little bit too defensively rather than offensively and just let the other team set up their plays and get movement in on us,” said Clayton
It wasn’t until the third period that the C1 Lakers came alive and mustered two goals.
“All the players stepped it up [in the third period]. We changed things up and moved some positions around. We got a couple goals and we were on the comeback. I’m excited to play the other team again and hopefully we’ll get it done,” Clayton added.
Regardless of the gaping margin in the final score between the C1 and C2 Lakers’ teams, when the hometown teams square off it’s always a heated and emotional affair.
“The hometown rivalries are great. They get pretty emotional. Nobody wants to lose, mostly because they know they have to deal with the other kids at school on Monday morning,” said Clayton.
C1 player, Nelson Wagner played a decent game. He agreed with Clayton in terms of what went wrong for his team.
“I think we played a pretty good game except we were kind of falling back instead of forward. We scored a couple nice goals and some good passes,” said Wagner.
Nolan Fathergill also scooped up a point. Fathergill’s not overly worried about the loss – he knows he’ll get another shot at his hometown rivals.
“I think we played a good game, too. I do want to play them again. We should play a little harder,” said Fathergill.
Wagner, too can’t wait for the next meeting with the C2 team.
“They should be ready,” added Wagner.
