Fresh off securing back to back LVC titles, the Varsity Hockey team turned to a regional tune up game meeting top-10 Birmingham United. BU came to the LIA well stocked with 19 seniors on their roster. They did not disappoint and jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period, and despite Lakeland rallying and scoring 3 of their own in the second, the Eagles lost, 7-4.

Lakeland's first goal came at the 12:40 mark when Fisher Christian stole the puck at center ice and toyed with the backing BU defender. Christian moved the puck here, there and back again under his outstretched stick and, seemingly bored with the game, passed the puck to a reliable Kyle Sierota who finished the play. The second goal arrived during a penalty kill. Luke Weinberger had just won a battle on the far hashmark deep in the LHS zone. He then carried the puck up the left hand boards and snapped a shot on net by the soft BU defender thanks to Regan Voorhies’ strong drive to the net. The rebound ended up behind the boards so naturally Weinberger picked up his own rebound, circled the net and stuffed the puck to make it 3-2. The final goal was a blue plate special from the Sierota-Christian-Weinberger line. Sierota dumped the puck around the boards where it was stopped by Christian, chopped to Weinberger and served back to Sierota in the slot for a sandwich goal.

Birmingham scored a power play goal a minute later to take a 4-3 lead into the break. BU scored three more in the 3rd to LHS' single goal. Lakeland could not hold serve despite another Fisher to Weinberger to Sierota (hat trick) beauty to pull within one.

Coach Ronayne: "We schedule strong teams so we can challenge ourselves. Losing is no fun but we're a better team for the loss. Coming back from 3-0 to make it a game into the 3rd gives us our playoff legs. All three lines had good scoring chances. Penalties hurt us as well they should vs good teams. We definitely need to clean that up."