Lakers look to extend win streak at home this weekend
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The Lake Tahoe Lakers lived up to the hype last weekend by extending their win streak to five straight against the McCall Smokejumpers. The last three of those wins took place at the Tahoe Ice Arena during the Lakers’ first homestand of the season.
It was a dominant performance for the Lakers both offensively and defensively. They scored five goals in each game played while allowing just two total goals against during the three-game series.
The home opener on Friday night had just about everything: a capacity crowd, a hat trick from Chase Harrington, a bench-clearing brawl at center ice that resulted in four suspensions, and a shutout performance in goal from the red-hot Aidan Finn, who backstopped the 5-0 victory for the Lakers.
Head Coach Tyler Dill decided to ride the hot hand by starting Finn in net again on Saturday night. In that game, the Smokejumpers scored a power-play goal that finally ended Finn’s shutout streak against them at 94 minutes and 26 seconds, a streak that began a week earlier during Finn’s first start of the season in McCall, Idaho, back on October 3rd.
But the Lakers got goals from five different players to secure their fourth straight win by a score of 5-1.
In the series finale on Sunday, the Lakers offense exploded for four first-period goals in a span of just seven and a half minutes of play, including two goals from Lakers assistant captain Lewis Beddow (Parker, CO). Toronto, Ontario native Riley Misa added his team-leading sixth goal of the season in the third period to help give the Lakers another 5-1 win.
The forward line of Misa, Tristan Van Olm (Calgary, AB), and Justin Brar (Langley, BC) appear to be developing great chemistry together. The trio created some beautiful passing plays that resulted in a combined 2 goals and 3 assists together on Sunday. Brar now leads the team in scoring with 9 points in 6 games played.
Goaltender Connor McManus (Arvada, CO) was stellar between the pipes for the Lakers in his season debut, stopping all but one of the 44 shots he faced. Assistant Coach Zach Wickson, who works closely with the Lakers goalies, must be doing something right.
Some areas the Lakers might look to clean up heading into this weekend’s series against the Fresno Monsters relate to special teams. Lake Tahoe had trouble staying out of the penalty box against McCall, which resulted in 16 penalty kill situations faced. The good news is they had an 89% success rate while shorthanded. The power play, on the other hand, only went 1-for-13 during the homestand.
The home schedule continues this weekend against the Fresno Monsters, who fell just one win short of a USPHL Premier National Championship last season. The weekend series against the Monsters presents a great opportunity for the Lakers to continue to make the case that the blue, red, and teal are for real this year.
The action will take place at the Tahoe Ice Arena on Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 pm and Sunday at noon. For ticket information, visit laketahoelakers.com
CORRECTIONS: Last week’s Lakers Report stated that Chase Harrington is from Calgary, AB. In fact, he is from Edmonton, AB. Also, Baron Tanton participated in training camp this season with the Prince George Cougars of the WHL, not the Prince Albert Raiders.
