Last Friday night found the Eagles in chilly Cheboygan to take on the hometown Chiefs. Cheboygan knocked off the Eagles in 2021 and the team was looking to set things right. Coach Ronayne: "It is a pleasure to head north and experience the small town hockey atmosphere. The city really supports their high school hockey and coach (Craig) Coxe rolls out the welcome mat every year for us. It's a big deal for us to be guests at their annual showcase."

Maybe it was the long bus ride or perhaps the blaring 80's rock between face-offs, whatever the reason the Eagles came out of the gate slow and sputtering. Junior goalie Paul 'Mullet' Baker turned back all shots in the first while his Cheboygan counterpart Chaston Rose did the same. 0-0 after one.

In the second the teams couldn't break either goalies' egg until the Eagles' powerplay hit pay dirt. Junior Luke Weinberger put the Eagles on board - cramming a rebound home off of a Timmy Hinkle point shot. Junior Brennan Grant also assisted. 1-0 after two.

Coach Ronayne broke out his bag of tricks and shook up the lines in attempt to spark more offense. It worked in the third when Weinberger scored again this time thanks to a long pass from Hinkle to freshman Austin Scanlon. Scanlon collected the puck, circled the net and flipped a shot into Rose's pads. Weinberger caught three Chiefs looking for the puck before finding it himself and beating Rose just off the post. Lakeland wasn't content with their two goal lead and had to kill a late penalty to seal the game. Cheboygan pulled their goalie to the bench and put on an extra attacker. Hinkle countered the pressure, won the puck in Lakeland's end and head manned it to Weinberger who bounced it back to Hinkle. Hinkle took a look at the open net and in a most unselfish manner passed to Weinberger to complete his hat trick. Hinkle would garner three assists for the night and leads the team in apples for the season.

Baker won the first shutout of the season. Coach McElwee on the team defense: "Before the first we challenged the boys to get donut for Paul. Both Paul and Slicker have held up their share of the load to keep us undefeated so it was nice to get a shutout for Paul."

Final score 3-0 (Empty netter).