On Tuesday, Feb. 1, the Lakers varsity hockey team faced Lane Tech in their first playoff game for the first round. With a lot of confidence and support, they came out with a victory with a score of 3-1. The three goals were made by senior Braydon Salata and two other students from Lakes Community High School. While it was a successful game, these players have to put in more hard work than they did before to make it through the playoffs.
Senior Gavin Frank is a defensemen and as a previous All-Star selectee this year, he’s one of the best on the team.
“I think I did well with being aware of defense and not letting them get any good chances,” Frank said.
Frank’s teammate, junior Sam Hanes, plays offense and is also seeing improvement in his skills from this game.
“I thought I did better on playing the body and staying in the play,” Hanes said.
There is always room to advance and master your technique and skills with any activity, and since they only have two practices per week, the team has had to make the most out of that time in order to be prepared for the next game.
“I will be working on passing and knowing where my teammates are in practice,” Frank said.
Since Frank’s strong suit is defense, it makes sense to work on offensive skills for the game. Vice versa, with Hanes playing offense, he needs to touch up on his defense.
“I think I did poorly on blocking shots, so it’s something I need to do more often,” Hanes said.
However, physicality is not the only component of being strong in winning, which senior Jason Fogel represents.
“I need to work on keeping my head in the game and mentally get into the mindset that wins games,” Fogel said.
As one of the seven seniors on the team, Fogel plays some part in making sure everyone is ready to play their hardest.
“I’ll be looking to improve by getting the entire team ready to put in 110%, because that’s what we’re going to need in order to go far in the playoffs as we face more challenging teams,” Fogel said.
For a lot of the seniors on the team, these are their last few games to play hockey, so they’ll be taking advantage of every practice they have to make it through this round and the championships. In their second playoff game, the Lakers are shooting for another win against the Kings on Saturday, Feb. 5, at the Pleasant Prairie RecPlex ice rink at 7:30 p.m.
