January 6, 2009
Lakers beat Kazakhstan
The Innisfil Lakers Jr. ?A? hockey team started 2009 off with international competition when they matched up
against the under-18 Kazzinc-Torpedo team from Kazakhstan.
With many of the Kazakhstan players younger than those on the Lakers squad you might have expected an
easy win for Innisfil, but the team that draws players from the ninth largest country in the world wasn?t giving
anything away. ?It was faster than I expected,? said defenceman Dustin Timm. ?They?re a really skilled team.?
Kazakhstan scored the first goal but before the end of the period both Caleb Lister and Max Douglas replied
and the Lakers finished the period up 2-1. It was the second period that would seal the final outcome with
Shawn Sullivan, Timm and Douglas adding three more goals for a 5-1 spread going into the third.
?We?re blessed with a good offense,? said general manager Dan Garneau. ?We tend to score a lot of goals.? Blessed or not, Kazakhstan kept the Lakers scoreless in the final period and added two points to the scoreboard but the four point gap was too big a spread to overcome and the game ended at 5-3. ?It started out as a skating game but got rougher and rougher,? said Jonathan Dew. ?They?re not a hitting team it was more they were getting frustrated.?
Team Kazakhstan arrived on Dec. 28 and will play up to eleven games against other teams in the Greater Metro Hockey League (GMHL) before they depart on Jan. 13.?They?ve been training before they left to play on the tour,? Kazakhstan head coach Pavel Makerov said through interpreter Alexi Kulikouskiy of the Lakers who is from Belarus. ?They?re in good shape.?
Two years ago the team won a tournament in Windsor and based on that experience knew it was worth coming back. Many of the players are looking for international experience and exposure with eight being candidates for the Kazakhstan National Team.
The Lakers are currently on a 15 game winning streak, tying the league record, and while the win against Kazakhstan makes it 16, the official record breaking win can?t come until their next home game Jan. 9 when they play the Tamworth Cyclones.
?Next Friday we expect to win,? said head coach Shane Hicke. The Cyclones are ranked 7th in their division and the Lakers have beat them three times before. ?But I would expect to win even more than fifteen.?
The winning streak is an indicator of the kind of year the Lakers are having but when taken in context with the 8 players who are currently off the roster due to injuries and illness, the wins speak directly to the depth of the team.
?We played with 14 guys last game because of injuries,? said Timm. ?But this team has a lot of heart. We just keep going.? The Lakers borrowed two players from the Oro-Medonte 77?s and five from the Minden Riverkings to fill out the roster against Kazakhstan. Goalie Matzev Grabnar of Slovenia has not returned from his release for the World Junior Championship.
In regular league play, with only two full lines the players that are still fit have had to step up.
?You play a lot,? said Dew. ?Some games are harder than others.?
Both Dew and Timm cite ?chemistry? as the reason behind the team?s on-going success. In his first year as head coach, Hicke made no bones that discipline would be a major focus for the team.
?If the guys play as a team, with the same goals, the sky?s the limit.?
Garneau is always on the lookout for new players and says he doesn?t want to give anything away but hopes for some new additions before the final Jan. 10 deadline.
?You can?t count on it until they?re in the dressing room but we don?t have a high refusal rate. Players want to come to us.?
Along with the new players, Hicke expects to have the injured players returned and the team he plans to win the championship with by Jan. 18. Playoffs begin the third week of February.
?We?re right on track (to the championship),? said Dew.
They?ll have to beat the South Muskoka Shield, which is ranked first in the North Division and last year?s champion Bradford Rattlers before they can claim the title.