It was a resounding victory for the Nipissing Lakers men’s hockey team, as they hosted the Laurentian Voyageurs in a rare Tuesday morning game, played in front of schoolchildren.
The Lakers benefitted from a huge game by North Bay native Brett Hargrave, as Nipissing picked up a big 6-2 victory over the Vees.
With the win, the Lakers snapped their four-game losing streak and gave the team some much-needed confidence offensively as they were able to find the back of the net six times.
In the first period, the Lakers and Vees traded goals. Laurentian opened the scoring just 1:27 in, on their first shot of the game. The Lakers tied things up with eight seconds remaining in the period as Erik Robichaud redirected a Colin Campbell pass to even things up. Guillaume Naud drew the other assist on the power play marker.
From there, it was all Lakers.
Nipissing scored twice in the second period, both coming off the stick of Hargrave. The goals came just a minute and a half apart, late in the period.
Jake Wright and Naud assisted on both goals, one of which came while the Lakers were up a man.
The Lakers extended their lead just 28 seconds into the third period as Lucas Brown stole the puck at his own blueline, broke away and made no mistake, going upstairs to make it 4-1 Lakers.
Hargrave completed the hat-trick later in the period, firing a low, hard shot from the left circle that found its way through traffic and into the net.
Laurentian got one goal back with under four minutes to go, but the Lakers replied in the dying seconds.
Steve Deeg sent a shot from the blueline that eluded everyone and slid into the net to wrap up the scoring.
Domenic Graham picked up the victory in net, turning aside 19 shots, while the Lakers peppered the Vees net, finishing with 43 shots.
Nipissing is back in action this weekend when they hit the road, facing Brock on Friday and Guelph, Saturday.
