Detroit Lakes High School Hockey: Welcome

The Lakers are finishing strong winning four of their last five games with a minor slip up in an 8 goal performance.  The Lakers have beaten three section 8 opponents in Red Lake Falls, Bagley and Kittson Central.  Those wins earned the Lakers a 6 six see in the section 8A playoffs.  The Lakers will travel to Warroad to play the Warriors on Friday, February 24th at 8:15pm.

The conference title will once again come down to the last game against Park Rapids Thursday night at home.  A win would give the Lakers a share of the Mid-State and Northwest conference titles. 

Alex Mason has gotten a lot of attention lately for a fabulous goal he scored against Bagley last Friday night.  Check out the youtube link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygNvDa-N7kQ

The Lakers got a well deserved win on Tuesday night against Red Lake Falls, winning the game by a score of 4-2.  The Eagles got on the board in the first period on the power play to take a 1-0 lead but the Lakers came out with energy in the second and dominated the period.  The Lakers tied the game on a Connor Collins goal to go into the break 1-1.  In the third the Lakers put the puck in the net twice inside of two minutes on goals by Alex Mason and Nick LeTourneau to take a 3-1 lead.  With just under 5 minutes to go the Lakers found themselves down after a questionable 5 minute major call.  With just under two minutes the Lakers found themselves down 2 men after another 5 minute major was called.  The Lakers dominated the play scoring into an Eagle empty net to take a 4-1 lead.  The Eagles got a late goal to pull back within two but it was too late.  MacKenzie Steele made 26 saves on the night for the win. 

The Lakers JV beat the Eagles JV with Ben Thompson getting his first shutout of the season.  Sam Velde scored a short handed goal in the first followed by a Brady Wilberg goal to give the Lakers a 2-0 lead after one.  In the second, Aaron Hoffman scored his first of the season to bring the lead to 3-0.  In the third Brady Crawford scored off a Ben Nelson shot to close out the game 4-0.  Thompson made 12 saves on the night in the shutout win. 

The Lakers went into the Granite City Classic looking for good things to happen and things started off strong with a 2-0 win over the Monticello Moose.  The game was back and forth for the majority of the game with the exception of the second period when the Lakers dominated play on the power play.  The Lakers got on the board right at the end of the first period as Alex Mason put home an Austin Rusness pass.  That goal would prove all the Lakers would need for the night.  In the second the Lakers had 11 qaulity scoring chances but couldn't beat Moose goalie.  In the third the Lakers played solid D-zone and an empty net goal by Austin Rusness salted the game away.  MacKenzie steele stopped 17 shots on the night for his first career HS shutout. 

The Lakers JV team started the night in nice fashion taking a 5-1 lead after one period.  Braedon Householder scored to get things started.  Then a goal by Brandon Olson and then Taylor Johnson put the Lakers up by 2.  Casey Paskey scored his first of the season and Sam Bergren capped off the first period with a power play goal.  Unfortunately, the Lakers JV couldn't hold off a potent Moose attack as they scored 6 unanswered throught the next two periods to take the game 7-5.  Ben Thompson made 26 saves on the night, his most of the year. 

This is the varsity practice schedule for the week:

All regular varsity guys are practicing plus the following players-

Monday:  Maroon line, Ben Nelson

Tuesday: Maroon line, Sam Bergren

Wednesday:  Blue Line, Ben Nelson

Thursday:  Blue Line, Sam Bergren

Friday:  Maroon and Blue Line, Ben Nelson, Sam Bergren

Saturday:  Open Hockey

The Lakers ran into a tough Park Rapids team on Tuesday night 6-3.  The Lakers had a tough time dealing with Panther star Sam Coburn as he registered 3 goals and 3 assists on the night.  The Lakers fell behind early on a Coburn short handed goal.  Taylor Magnuson tallied his first of the year off a Kyle Herrmann pass.  The Panthers scored shortly after to regain the lead.  Coming into the second the Lakers missed two perfect opportunities early on that would have given them the lead but the Panthers answered instead tallying the next two goals to take a 4-1 lead.  Connor Collins scored before the end of the period to pull the Lakers back to within two.  In the third the Panthers scored first to take a 3 goal lead on some genrous calls by the officials.  While on the rush, Connor Collins broke free and was taken down to give the Lakers the power play.  While up a man, Coburn broke free and ended  up falling down on a nice Laker backcheck.  Unfortunately, the Panthers were awarded a penalty shot on the play and capitalized as Sam Coburn got his third of the game.  The Lakers would score late but it wasn't enough.  Mackenzie Steele has 33 saves on the night in the loss.  The Lakers are now 3-3 on the year and 2-1 in the Mid-State conference.

The Lakers JV ran into some hot Panther goaltending in their tilt.  The Lakers outshot the Panthers throughout the game but it was the Panther's were opportunistic and put in four goals on 11 shots.  The Lakers could only muster 2 goals on 47 shots on the night.  The Loss put the Lakers record to 3-3 on the year.  Ben Thompson lost his first game on the year making 7 saves on the night. 

The Lakers moved to 2-0 on the season thus far in the Mid-State conference.  The Lakers did it by beating Prairie Center 3-1.   The Lakers fell behind 1-0 early in the first but soon pulled back to even on an Austin Rusness goal, his fifth of the season.  After a scoreless second period it was shades of Northern Lakes again as the Lakers dominated in shots but couldn't find the back of the net.  It took a power play in the third before the Lakers put the game away on a goal by Connor Collins.  Ethan Brekke added an open net goal to seal the deal to move the Lakers to 3-2 on the season and keep the Lakers unbeaten in the Mid-State.  MacKenzie Steele got his third win of the season making 21 saves on the night.

The Lakers JV also won their third straight game beating Prairie Center 4-3.  The Lakers controlled the game for most of the night.  Jacob Fritz scored the first Laker goal in the first period off a pass from Wilson Lysford.  Prairie Center would tie the game in the second, Brennon Benscoter gave the Lakers the lead shortly after on a nice shot off the break.  Ben Nelson put the Lakers up by two and Sam Velde put away the Lakers fourth goal.  Prairie Center would make a late bid to tie the game after they scored two power play goals late.  The Lakers held on for the 4-3 win.  Goalie Ben Thompson won his third of the season making 16 saves.

The Lakers played their first Mid-State conference game Thursday night agains Northern Lakes and started their defense of the conference championship off in style with a 2-1 OT victory over the Lightning.  The game saw the Lakers fire 61 shots on the Lightning goalie on the night.  After a scoreless first period the second period saw the Lakers score on the Power play to take a 1-0 lead.  An errant pass at the end of the period led to a Lightning goal to knot the score at one after the second.  In the third the Lakers would put up 27 shots on net only to go scoreless and the game went into OT.  After a game saving save by MacKenzie Steele, Kyle Herrmann streaked down the sideboards and finally beat the Lightning goalie short side to give the Lakers a victory.  The win brings the Lakers season record to 2-2 and 1-0 in Mid-State.

The Lakers JV recovered from a slow start finding themselves down 5-1 after the first period to come back and win the game 8-5.  Wilson Lysford scored the first goal of the game for the Lakers late in the first period.  Taylor Johnson scored three goals on the night and added 2 assists.  Brady Crawford scored one goal and added two assists.  Brandon Olson scored a goal and added 3 assists.  Braedon Householder and Nate Friesen scored goals for the Lakers.  Ben Thompson made 8 saves for his second win of the season.

The Laker boys hockey team won their first game of the season in dramatic fashion beating their rival Fergus Falls Otters 4-3 in OT.  The Lakers played a great game all night shutting down the quality chances of the Otters during the course of the game.  Freshman goalie MacKenzie Steele got his first win making 47 saves and playing spectacular the whole night.  The Lakers jumped out right away as Kyle Herrmann took an errant play by the Otter goalie and putting it in the net.  In the second, Fergus Falls scored two goals early to take the lead but a nice give and go between Alex Mason and Austin Rusness tied the game.  In the third the Otters took the lead again but with the goalie pulled in the final seconds Derick Brehm put a slap shot in the lower corner to tie the game with 11 seconds left.  In OT it was all Lakers.  Connor Collins took an Austin Rusness pass and hit what seemed to be the winning goal but the puck hit the post and Austin Rusness put the loose puck home for the win.  It was a great night for Laker Hockey!

The Lakers JV also got their first win beating the Otters JV by a score of 8-3.  Brandon Olson scored 2 goals and added two assists for the game.  Brady Crawford scored one goal and added 3 assists.  Sam Velde scored two goals and single goals were added by Wilson Lysford, Brennon Benscoter and Brady Wilberg.  Ben Thompson stopped 8 shots and got the win in goal.  Way to go Lakers!

The Lakers just completed the thrid annual Thanksgiving Shootout at Kent Freeman Arena.  After two years of championship games this year didn't work out as planned.  Friday night the Lakers faced the Minneapolis Novas team.  It was a good night for the Lakers as they played hard all game, worked their systems well and outshot the Novas 32-24.  Unfortuantely, after controlling play for the first 10 minutes of the first period ,a 4 minute lull in the first period Mpls scored 4 goals to put the Lakers in the whole 4-0 after one.  The Lakers responded well in the second but the Mpls goalie held the Lakers off the board.  In the third the Lakers took it to the Novas scoring twice to pull within two.  Austin Rusness tallied both goals off passes from Alex Mason.  After having all the momentum a fluke goal went in off a Laker stick to put the Novas back up by three and the game ended 5-2. MacKenzie Steele made his varsity debut in nets making 20 saves on the night and having a spectacular second and third periods.

Saturday night MacKenzie Steele had a fantastic game against the Grafton Spoilers making 36 saves in a 6-0 loss.  The Laker skaters couldn't get anything going as the Spoilers were buzzing all game long.  The Lakers had no answer and struggled to muster up any offense.  The Spoilers were opportunistic all game scoring 6 goals from in front of the net.  A lot of different players got into the Laker game and Coach Denardo was pleased to see some guys step up and handle the pressure situation well.  

The Lakers will face a tough Fergus Falls team Tuesday night at the Kent Freeman Arena.