The Lake Cowichan bantam Lakers are enjoying an unblemished 2-0 record to start the Mid-Island Hockey League season.
Toppling the Nanaimo Blazers last Saturday at Cowichan Lake Sports Arena by a score of 6-4, the Lakers appeared dominant in their second win of the young 2011-12 MIHL season. A weekend prior, the Lakers defeated another Nanaimo team for their first win of the season.
Lakers’ head coach Calvin Convery hopes his team’s undefeated status is a sign of things to come this season.
“They’re coming together and believing in each other so it’s nice to see. It’s take a team a while together to come together so the more practice and games will be the better we gel,” said Convery.
The win was sweet revenge for the Lakers, who fell 5-4 to the same Nanaimo Blazers in the MIHL pre-season. Convery was pleased with the Laker’s performance, stressing his team played with the absence of several key players.
“We were missing a couple of our stronger players so the team came together really well,” he said.
The Lakers were a busy bunch on Saturday, immediately tripping to the Saanich Peninsula following their bout with Nanaimo to tango with the Sidney Eagles in an exhibition contest. Despite skating with just two lines, the Lakers emerged victorious for the second time in a day, trumping the Eagles 6-4. Unfortunately, the win did not count towards their MIHL season record and was strictly meant for practice.
Convery, whose been at the Lakers’ helm for the sixth consecutive season, thought his netminder, Justin Fournier was exceptional in the victory over Nanaimo.
“He [Fournier] is very reliable and a very consistent goalie. He makes the big saves when we need them. He made key third period saves and really helped us out,” described the Lakers’ bench boss.
Convery noted that the team’s offensive depth really shined this past weekend.
“The good thing was the scoring was spread out so there wasn’t really a whole lot of hogging the puck,” said Convery.
He credited Lakers’ centre, Ray Mullen with playing two solid games against Nanaimo and Sidney.
“He [Mullen] had a good game at centre. He had a good game offensively and defensively. He never got rewarded with a goal but still he was a key part.”
The bantam Lakers enjoy a bye-week this coming weekend and will resume MIHL action on Nov. 19 when they host Cowichan Valley 1. The puck is set to drop at 12:30 p.m.
