Wednesday, January 15th, the Varsity Hockey corralled their rival Milford Mavericks in front of a season high crowd. The vaunted Barbers Cup was up for grabs with many Lakeland and Milford hockey alumni in the barn, including former player/coach and LHS Athletic Hall of Famer Bobby Leist.

With Hunter Bennett in LHS' goal the Eagles took just 5 minutes to bury their first goal of the night. From the blue line Bryce Martin bounced a pass to Nate Dell who walked the puck to the top of the circle and snapped the puck in off of the crossbar on his way to a four point game. Less than a minute later, Ryan Danielson scored an unassisted powerplay goal, going end to end eventually wading through the Milford defenders to launch an unstoppable wrist shot over the netminder. Dell was not finished as he scored his second goal just 20 seconds later (assists to Tyler Buback and Austin Scanlon). 

Milford called time out and briefly stemmed the tide but Lakeland's attackers proved to be too much to handle. Lakeland went on to tally nine goals. Other goals: Bryce Martin snipped an unassisted PP goal and Scanlon scored back-to-back goals: first on a rush from Dell and Jacob Grant then a rebound goal (Dell). 

The 7th goal was Danielson's second of the night when he tipped in a point shot from Vince Modica as Zane Austin jammed the Milford crease. The next goal was more of the same - this time Modica's slapper made it cleanly into the net thanks to Austin again parked directly in front of the Mav goalie. Killian Voorhies ended the game when he stole the puck deep in the Milford zone and buried the final goal. 9-1 Lakeland.

Coach Ronayne: "Glad to get that one out of the way. Milford is our main rival and we throw the records out the window when we meet them. Good win."

Next up is the annual charity event vs WLN. Come on out to support and honor community members impacted by cancer diagnoses. 6 pm LIA on Saturday 1/19.

Photos submitted