Lakeland varsity hockey kicked off a huge weekend home stand with a decisive victory over the newly combined Walled Lake Western – Pinckney hockey programs aka Western-Pinckney Unified.

Both teams entered the game unbeaten in LVC play. Assistant Coach Matt McElwee on Friday’s opponent: “WP-U can strike fast and score goals in bunches. Their top line is as good as you’ll find in the LVC and beyond. If we don’t put the work in to contain them they will hurt us.”

Nate Behmlander set the tone early in the first period thanks to some hard work by sophomore Reid Sutherland. Sutherland, a defenseman, turned the puck up-ice and followed his dump-in behind the WLP net. His forecheck bounced the puck to senior Mitchell Beller who found Behmlander driving the net for a back door strike. 1-0 Lakeland. Goal two for Lakeland came just five minutes later. Junior Timmy Hinkle snapped a pass to junior D Elliot Smith. Smith wristed the puck on goal where senior captain Luke Weinberger picked it out of the air. The puck landed on Senior Robby Lewis’ stick for an easy weak side strike. Goal #3 was Lewis again redirecting a pass from Hinkle at the end of a Timmy-Special 3 zone rush. 3 – 0 after one.

Lakeland added two more goals in the second period. In the 11th minute, Weinberger fought through two defenders shoveling the puck to Bellar at the WLP blue line. Bellar drew a defender and rewarded Weinberger’s hard drive to the net with a return pass. The goaltender could not corral the shot and as the puck wobbled in the crease Luke tapped in his own rebound. On a subsequent Lakeland short-handed penalty kill, Weinberger scored his second of the game with an individual effort. Weinberger outworked the WLP point man and found himself alone and cleared for approach on the right side of the circle. Luke befuddled the WLP goaltender and calmly roofed the puck into the top of the net. Video review confirmed the opposing water bottle traveled 1.5 feet from right to left as a result. 5-0 after two.

Lakeland needed their two period cushion when WLP scored two quick goals early in the third. Coach Ronayne used his first time-out of the season to calm the Eagle’s ruffled feathers. WLP continued their onslaught but senior Jason Slicker was stalwart in net. Turning back 30 of 32 shots to go 3-0 for the season with a top-10 in the state .945 GAA. Final score 6-2 LHS.

Coach Ronayne on the win: “They outshot us and we spent more time in the box. So that’s not good. And I know they were missing at least one top forward. We’re happy we won. Luke had a nice Hattie and we played good enough D to win. The next meeting with Western is circled on our calendar.”