Wild weekend as Lakers hockey defeat McGill

The Nipissing Lakers men’s hockey team was in action against two teams from La Belle Province over the past weekend, and it turned into a wild, upside down weekend as the Lakers lost to Concordia, but rallied to beat McGill for the first time in their young history.On Friday night versus the Concordia Stingers, the Lakers got off to a slow start.  Thanks to an unlucky bobble that wound up in the net, the Lakers found themselves down early and were never able to recover, despite doubling the Stingers in shots on goal (40-20).
It was a tough loss, but perhaps it helped underline the importance of starting strong and putting in a solid effort, especially with powerhouse McGill on the slate for the Saturday night game.
McGill has traditionally had the Lakers’ number, beating them consistently, including some difficult playoff ousters. 
Saturday was a different story as the Lakers got a red-shirted gorilla off their backs while playing one of the most exciting games Memorial Gardens has seen in years, beating the storied Redman 2-1 in dramatic shootout fashion to the delight of the 2,365 fans in attendance.
McGill struck first converting a Lakers miscue into a partial breakaway that beat goaltender Dan Spence in the first period.
The Lakers got on the board in the second period off a Jason Gray cannon from the blue line to tie it up at one.

The Lakers dominated the game in terms of possession and shots on goal, but simply couldn’t beat McGill’s goaltender despite some fantastic chances.
After five minutes of sudden death overtime solved nothing, it was time to cue the shootout.
Like in regulation play, the goalies were the big stars, stopping shot after shot after shot.
Anticipation was ripe as the shootout entered the eighth round, and then Dorian Peca provided the heroics, beating the McGill goaltender with a high shot over the glove hand and sending the Lakers fans home happy and satisfied.

The win puts the Lakers in fifth place, two points behind Ottawa, who the Lakers face off against in Ottawa this Saturday night, and a single point up on Toronto who sits in sixth.  With the regular season coming to a close on February 9, this weekend’s games will have massive repercussions for playoff seeding.