The Varsity Hockey team celebrated its nine senior Eagles on Saturday night at the LIA. At stake: a perfect record and two points vs LVC league opponent Lakes Area United. Coach Ronayne tees up the game for us: "Lakes Area is a goalie factory. Also their team improves as the season progresses. They went the distance with Milford last week and we know they'll be looking to knock us off our streak."

Coach proved to be spot-on as Lakes goalie Tyler Long turned back all 18 LHS shots in the first period. Senior Jason Slicker faced six shots to leave the score 0-0 after one.

In the second period the Eagles scored their first goal of the night around the ten minute mark when junior Timmy Hinkle and freshman Austin Scanlon sandwiched a Lakes Area defender on the right hashmark. Hinkle came up with the puck and shoveled it to Luke Weinberger as all three line-mates spread out in a flying V towards the net. Weinberger took the puck and the goalie wide right and moved the puck to Scanlon who canned it home. Lakes Area didn't think much of the goal and just 20 seconds later sprung a 3 on 1 to beat Slicker high glove side. 1-1 after two.

The third period was scoreless. Lakeland hit some iron, some glass and some Long but left the back of the net undisturbed. The Eagles were headed to an eight minute OT for the second time this season. On just the second shift of OT junior Brennan Grant won the faceoff deep in Lakeland's zone. He retrieved the puck on his own and carried the puck to the blue line before handing it off to senior Mitchell "Mike" Beller. Beller fed sophomore Ryan Danielson on the left side who took it along the boards and ripped an NHL worthy shot high on Long's far side - the puck glanced off his shoulder and into the net for the 2-1 Eagle's OT win.

The Eagles tested Long with 50 shots while Slicker turned back 19 of 20 shots. Notable - both Slicker and junior goalie Paul Baker rank in the top 10 in the state in both Save Percentage and Goals Against Average.

Coach Ronayne on the win: "We have a lot of offensive weapons. Ryan's line has about 20 goals so far this season and delivered a big one tonight. Danielson has four goals in the last four games and we're expecting that to continue. Slicker was steady in net and we know goaltending is a huge part of our success. Keeping Lakes to just one goal was key to the win."

Next up Novi @ Novi on Tuesday night 7:45 PM.