Lakeland starts strong in state playoff by Jim McConville special to The Record
WAYNE – Coming off a disappointing Big North Gold Cup quarterfinal loss and a long layoff to think about it, Lakeland was in need of a confidence boost, not to mention the reclaiming of its mojo.
And it was the second and third lines, and Greg Martin in particular, delivering the spark. Playing against the same Morris Hills team they beat in the first round of the Public B state tournament last season, they got a big start this season with a 9-0 defeat of the Knights.
Martin came into the game with two goals all season and he netted three against the Knights. Six other skaters found the back of the net, with three of them coming from second and third liners.
“Coming in, I wasn’t sure that it was a positive playing them again,” Lakeland coach Nick Crouch said. “They are a much better team this year, and we had such a long layoff. We just mixed things up with the second and third lines and we finally got to see some of the talent those kids have.”
The Lancers’ second line scored the only goal of the first period. Martin found some space near the left slot and took a Bobby Wogisch feed for the goal at 11:08 of the period.
“It was getting into the game and we needed to make something happen,” Martin said. “It was a good pass from (Wogisch) and once that one went in it took a lot of pressure off of us.”
Lakeland (16-6-2) extended that lead with three straight goals 2:15 apart early in the second period. The first came off a takeaway at the Knights blue line by Luke Broderick. He angled in on the right side and backhanded one that was saved, only to have Gorman pounce on the rebound and score.
That seemed to unnerve Morris Hills a bit, and when Broderick took an Andrew Heck pass and scored from the low right side it was 3-0. Heck then followed that up with an unassisted goal and the Lancers owned a 4-0 lead at 5:24 of the second.
“We lost a lot of seniors last year and we have 10 of them this year,” Crouch said, “but I really believe that there is a lot of talent on this team. This is the kind of game we’re going to have to play if we want to keep going. We can’t depend on one line or a hot goaltender.”
The Knights did not get a shot off in the third period and the Lancers continued to keep putting the puck on the net. While the first line of Heck, Broderick and Dan Martin each scored a goal, they got goals from Rich Gorman, Josh Querrazzi and Brayden Mahurter, the first of the season for all three of them.
“We’ve been mixing things up in practice,” Martin said. “We really felt like we shouldn’t have lost that (Cup) game, but we just said that we had to put that in the past and concentrate on this game and get it going again.”
The Lancers will now take on Millburn on Friday night in the Round of 16 at the Ice Vault. Millburn is the kind of team that has given Lakeland fits this year, a defensive-minded squad with a very talented goaltender.
“That’s why a game like this is so important,” Crouch said. “We got a lot of guys on the scoresheet and they can go into Friday with some renewed confidence.”