There is a lot of pressure on Lakeland as the Big North Liberty Cup opens play. The Lancers came in as the top seed but certainly not a consensus pick to be holding the Cup this coming Friday.
Some of that pressure started to show late in the second period against West Milford in the quarterfinals. Despite having the better of play, Lakeland found itself embroiled in a 2-1 game, and a West Milford goal could have turned up the heat even more.
Instead, the Highlanders took the pressure off of the Lancers by committing a five-minute major penalty in the final minute of the second period. Lakeland jumped all over it to open the third, scoring three power play goals on the advantage to blow open the game and allow an exhale, at least for a couple of days.
The resulting 7-1 win pits them against Mahwah in the semifinals at 6:00 p.m. on Monday at the Ice Vault, a game where they will likely have to play a better game than they did against the Highlanders, who saw a disappointing season end at 5-14-2.
Andrew Heck got the first of the trio of power play goals 1:33 into the third. That was followed by tallies from Chris Wands (his second of the game at 3:23) and Danny Mullin (his North Jersey-leading 36th at 4:22).
Heck scored his second of the game at 10:15 of the third and Zack Querrazzi closed the scoring with his first varsity goal at 13:23.
Wands and Shane Davison (1 goal, 4 assists) scored in the first period for the Lancers (20-1-2), but Lakeland couldn’t break away. When Dylan Dinzik knocked home a rebounds at 8:29 of the second, West Milford was knocking on the door.
Sean Komjian had 11 saves for Lakleland, including only one in the third period when Lakeland sent 16 shots WM goaltender Ryan Browne (37 saves).