Edina Lakers

#4 Bruno Borowcyzk Had a big weekend Photo ESP1000 by Russ Eastburn

On Friday night the two teams squared off in Owatonna at a neutral site game in the soon-to-be home of the Steele County Blades. The Lakers got three first period goals, two by Bruno Borowcyzk (Menaqua, WI) and the other by Connor Bodin ( Round Rock, TX), to quickly gain control of the game in front of a very energetic Ice Hawks fan base. The second period saw much of the same with the Lakers scoring two more goals, one by Borowcyzk and a shorthanded goal by Brad Johnson (Round Rock, TX) to take a lead of five to two heading into the third period. The Lakers added a goal in the third by Tadayoshi Shibata (Kurizawa, Japan) and held off a late Ice Hawks surge to win the game 6 – 5. The Lakers also got 40 saves from newly acquired goalie Greg Ogard. (De Pere, WI)

Assistant Coach Joe Lorentz stated after the game, “We played our best game as a team, all four lines, six defenseman and goaltender contributed tonight. We are going to need that kind of effort from here on out.”

On Saturday night in Rochester the Ice Hawks were ready to play from the drop of the puck. The home team scored two goals in the first 1:33 to put the Lakers in a deep hole. Edina eventually worked their way out of it in the second period with three goals one by Borowcyzk, another by Shibata, which was shorthanded, and the third by Kris Yelderman (Kansas City, MO) who was acquired via trade from the Twin City Northern Lights. The Lakers three goals evened the score at three after the first two periods.

In the third period the Lakers got a quick goal from Anton Martirosian (Edinburgh, Austria) and controlled the play until Rochester scored a goal on a nice play at 8:03. The final ten minutes of the weekend set up for great hockey. Both teams traded great opportunities with the Lakers finally scoring on the powerplay with a little over two minutes remaining on a great passing play by Martirosian and Grayson Nuti (Oakland, CA) and Shibata finishing it off. Edina held on with more spectacular goaltending by Greg Ogard who ended the weekend with 80 saves and two wins.

“I was really impressed with how the players battled back after a tough weekend before this one. It shows the guys are still committed and believe we can accomplish some things that we wanted to at the beginning of the year. It was a lot of fun,” explained Laker’s head coach Joe Long.

Bruno Borowcyzk ended up with four goals and seven points on the weekend which easily passes as the best weekend in recent Laker history. Tadayoshi Shibata’s two goals now give him 24 for the season, which leads the team. The Laker’s played without Adam Wiertzema (Breckenridge, MN) who was out with an upper body injury but is expected to return this week.

This marks the first two game weekend sweep for the Lakers who now move on to play a rare Wednesday game against the Maple Grove Energy. The Energy got their first win of the season the last time the two teams met earlier this month. The game Wednesday begins at 7pm at the Maple Grove Community center.